Bitter and Cold
by Miner7365
Summary: A story about a duo that, when united, were able to stand strong in the face of catastrophe. But now, isolated from each other between worlds, and finding their pasts coming after them at the worse possible time, they can only question whether they can even save themselves, much less everyone. A Gates to Infinity Post-Game story, featuring dark and semi-disturbing themes.
1. Prologue: Bitter

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* * *

 _ _Prologue: Bitter__

 _ _?'s POV__

After all this time, we… we had defeated it.

It was finally gone…

The being previously in front of me, formerly known as the Bittercold, was now only scattered spikes of ice, a small remnant of the horrifying monster it once was. It was surreal that, after all this time, it was finally gone. Staring at where the thing once stood, as the dust left from the battle started to clear up, I tried to move forwards before finding some resistance, more then likely energy left over from the Bittercold. I guess I needed to wait.

Pulling my scarf tighter around my neck, in a attempt to warm myself up, I looked back at my partner. He was staring down at the ground, if I had to guess angry that he had to stand back and watch me have to fight it alone, rather then be by my side like he had been this entire journey. I figured he would be fine for now though. Taking one last second to look back at him, I started to look around again to make sure nothing was left of that thing. Still slightly shivering at the surroundings, the fact that I was a dragon type not helping, I started to walk forward, not wanting to take a chance there was any part of it left in its wake.

If there was any part of it left, it had to be destroyed. I could not take any chances.

As I walked forward towards the center of the room, with me fervently searching for any trace of that thing, I felt something odd come underneath my foot. Slightly sighing, I looked down and found that I was greeted with a- huh?

When I looked down, I was greeted with a image of a Zoroark staring back at me, a polaroid image. It stared at me, tauntingly, as I picked it up and tried to make some sense out of it from the image itself. It was a giant enigma to put it lightly, considering how I had not seen a single camera in this world as of yet anyways. So from where had it come from?

Just as I was about to examine the image further, I looked back up and saw Spark slightly whimpering; reminding me of what truly mattered right now. After I gently put the image away in the bag, I started walking towards him. It was rare to see him in a state like this, but if he was going through what I thought he was going through, then I needed to help him.

So, I did the one thing I knew I could do to help; I hugged him and softly said something I think he needed to hear.

"It's gone. We're all free now. We're all going to be fine. We've won."

"Everyone is free now."

Seeing him having slightly calmed down after I said that, I took his hand and we started to walk down this mountain.

We, at least for a little while, walked together.

 _ _Spark's? POV__

Riley and I had been walking down the path that had lead us up to that monster for a while now, as I found myself mulling over that last sentence he told me.

"Everyone is free now."

I already knew he said it for the sole purpose of trying to get me back up, but I could say for sure it did not work. If anything, the statement only reminded me of the state I was in before I met him in those woods. Back when I was that thing.

Hollowly chuckling, and in a attempt to get my mind out of the gutter, I looked back up at him. He was so cheery, and probably thought I was too, knowing him and his optimism. I had always had my head in the ditch since my childhood, and for as much as I tried to forget, I never truly could. In being honest, I had never mentioned this to him for the sole reason that I did not want him to think of me as not being normal. All I wanted from him is to be a friend.

A friend, and for him to not think of me as someone who was honestly scared of what would happen if he was not there anymore. Only just a regular old friend.

That was all I wanted.

Almost chuckling at the sheer irony of the situation, and the fact that I was down when I should be up for once in my life, I looked back towards him. He kept walking, almost marching forward in front of me, a certain proudness in each step, probably pride as to the fact that that thing was finally gone. Despite all the stuff I had done in the cavern, he still thought of me as normal, and did not catch on to my true self.

And I hoped that it was going to stay that way, at least, until I was finally ready to tell him.

If hoping actually meant anything, other then putting blind faith into something.

Sighing at the comment I had just made, I followed him as we continued to walk.

I was just being a pessimist as usual, everything would be fine.

It had to be.

 _ _Riley's POV__

When we got back to town, we were praised as heroes.

Everybody in Post Town had gotten a giant celebration ready at Swanna's inn, with everyone having something to say or something to thank us for. It was one of the most uplifting things I had seen in a while.

Although, in saying that, I swore I saw the slightest tinge of melancholy in Spark's face as I walked past by him during my talk with Emolga. It seemed like I was the only one who noticed it, but it was there. It was there, and it seemed so odd for him. He was usually the kind of guy to have his head constantly up, so why was he down right now? What could have been so bad?

For a little while, I tried to disregard it, just talking to everyone and trying to have fun on this celebratory day. But every time I almost got involved in something, my mind would jump back to the topic of Spark. I could not get my mind off of him no matter what.

I knew I needed to get away for a little while. All I needed to do was go have a few moments to think.

Taking one last moment to take in the lively atmosphere the entire area gave off, I walked towards the door, leaving the lively atmosphere within the inn for the desolate place that was Post Town at night. I could still hear the lively noises of chatter as I walked away into the now empty square, as I looked up at the stars the entire time. They almost seemed to be beckoning me.

And at the same time, also reminding me of all the nights I spent stargazing outside of Driftveil, wondering what was up there. In a way, it almost seemed as if they were calling to me, telling me to go back. Slightly chuckling at the thought, I continued looking up at the stars. Why was I even thinking about that, anyways, it was not like that was even a option any- wait.

Was it an option?

I mean, the Bittercold was gone, and Hydreigon had shown that he was capable of bringing humans to this world. Surely the opposite was true?

Perhaps. I mean, in being honest, going back was a question I had not even thought about in so, so long. I had become so accustomed to being here I never really considered it that much in recent times. Was it possible for me to go back?

Would I have to chose between being here, or being with Alexia back home? Because I was not sure I would even be able to make that choice. In being honest, did I even want to have that choice?

I sighed after I reached the overhang on top of the town, the best place for looking out at the stars. Sitting down, I looked out towards the surrounding landscape; in all their serenity and beauty, with the stars twinkling over the overarching trees on the hills. If anything, I knew I was overreacting to all of this. Even if it was a option, I could worry about that tomorrow or the next day or in a week. Today, I should just be happy that the Bittercold was finally gone.

Today, nothing was going to go wrong—

Suddenly, before I had a moment to finish that though, Hydreigon flew into view from below the cliff, slightly startling me. I wondered what in Arceus' name he needed me for, but I simply stayed silent as he began to talk.

"Oh, uh… hey, nice seeing you Riley. How have you been?"

Scratching my head, confused as to his presence, I asked, "Hydreigon, is there a issue or…"

I heard him sigh. "No, no, it's... it's nothing. I just want to formally thank you again for everything you did. Really, I appreciate it."

My hand started scratching the back of my head. "Well, that's sweet and all, but why the privacy? Is… is there something else you need to tell me?"

The more we talked, the more and more I was put off by this whole situation in general. Why had he come all the way out here to tell me how thankful he was if he could have just done that when I got back to the party? Was he hiding something? Because if he was, I was not sure whether I was going to like what it turned out to be.

I was not sure I was going to like it at all.

After a few prolonged moments of silence, with only the cutting noises of wind and ruffling of leaves making a dent in it, he said, "Well uh… you see… there is this… this thing involving… involving you that I… I need to tell you…"

Now slightly sniffling, he continued. "Riley, your… your time in this world is almost up. As much as I am thankful for what you have done, for the sake of this world you… you need to go back."

"I have to send you back. I have to. I'm… I'm so sorry…"

It was then, at that exact moment, that everything felt like it came crashing down.

After all this time, I had to go back. It would be a lie to say I had not considered whether I wanted to go back, but that was me thinking of it theoretically weeks or even months down the line. Here, I was being told I had to go back almost immediately after I defeated that monster. If anything, it felt like it had to be a giant joke.

And a bad joke at that. The kind of joke you would play on someone you hated. The one that was not funny to anybody but the person making it. It felt like one, big, giant joke.

Finding myself unable to muster up anything to say, I simply walked over to a tree and laid against its side, looking up at the stars. Hydreigon followed me over, much to my chagrin, but I was not about to tell the literal voice of the world off.

Not even bothering to look towards his way as I leaned against a tree, I asked him,"When? When do you have to send me back?"

"T- tomorrow morning, unfortunately..."

Sighing, I closed my eyes, before kicking one of the nearby rocks off the hill into the stark abyss beyond. Hydreigon continued looking down at me, probably hating himself for having to say that whole thing knowing him. But if there was one thing I needed to do, it was get away, like I originally left the party to do. Just get away.

All I needed to do was get away right now.

Getting off the side of the tree, I started walking before Hydreigon flew in front of me. "Oh uh… there is… is something else I need to uh… tell you."

Sighing, I asked, "What else could there possibly be?"

Hydreigon looked to the side, shaking his head before finally saying, "There… there is also… also the fact that… that they'll forget… they'll forget all about you after… after tomorrow."

"After tomorrow, you… will basically have never existed in the eyes of everyone around here," I backed up slightly, glancing around, before he continued. "I'm sorry, but it's the only way for me to stop any damage you coming here might have caused to the world. I have to do this."

This was not real, and I knew it. This could not possibly be happening. Everyone here was going to forget that I ever existed. All of this might as well not have ever happened to me, considering only I and Hydreigon would be the ones that remembered. In the eyes of most, these six months might as well not even have happened.

And, it was at that fact, that I found myself breaking down on that hill that night. This could not be happening. It just could not. In their eyes, I would have never existed. He was just going to erase all those friendships, and make it like they never existed. He was going to take away the one time I felt like a hero from everyone else. He was just going to take that away.

"Just… meet me here tomorrow, okay," I heard Hydreigon say, slight sobbing originating from his eyes; slight sobbing I did not want or need.

"I… I know this probably is not how you… you thought your journey would end, but… it is how it is…"

Not wanting to hear anything else, I got up and walked out of the area, hoping Hydreigon would get the hint not to follow. Thankfully, he did. Knowing I could not go back to the party in the state I was in after that, I continued walking back through the town, hearing a slight ruffling in the bushes I did not bother to investigate, taking it as some feral Fletchling or some little thing that got lost from whatever parents it had. In all honesty, I just did not care.

The walk evolved into a run towards my house, with me only wanting to get away.

Because everything hurt so, so badly.

 _ _Spark's POV__

No…

No… no…

This… this could not be happening…

I found myself dashing away from the bush, the bush I had just spied on the whole scene from. I did not know if he noticed the noise from the ruffling of the leaves, but I did not care at the time. Instead, I was too busy caring about what was happening in front of me.

This… this could not be happening…

No… please be a dream… please wake up…

Please…

Memories of the time I told him he should stay here forever came back up in my head, memories that now seemingly haunted me. I told him that, I told him in some hope that it would make him want to stay here, if he ever got a choice and figured out what happened to him.

But of course, it was never a choice, was it? Stories involving me have never had happy endings before, so why would this one be any different? Was I being oblivious?

And then there was the fact… the fact that I was going to forget…

That I would forget all about him… forget all about everything…

Who was I going to be when I forgot… would I still be Spark or… or would I be… would I be him again?

Everything felt like pure agony as I found myself running through the woods, the trees towering over me like judges. It was so dark that they looked only looked like towering pillars moving all around me, judging me. They all judged me, judged me for hoping, judged me for believing everything could be good for once, judged me for trying to be someone I was not.

I was so scared of losing Spark, yet it already felt like he was slipping. Slipping, slipping, and slipping.

Eventually, the towering judges of the forest gave me a final verdict of their own, when I tripped over a root leading to me ramming my head into a fallen log, taking all the wind I still had in me out in one fell swoop. Darkness consumed my vision as I fell unconscious, not waking up until the light of day shined over all.

And when I woke up, hours later, I remembered how it felt to be alone again.

It hurt.

 _ _Riley's POV__

When my eyes started to twitch open as the light of morning sprawled across my face, I knew my time in this world was starting to come to a close. Sighing, regretting my actions fueled by anger last night, especially not going to the party again, I continued laying down.

Eventually, after delaying the inevitable as long as I could, I fully opened my eyes and took one last glance across the room, taking in everything one last time. I found it odd that Spark had not shown back up last night, but I disregarded it, knowing I would not have time to investigate before Hydreigon would send me back.

Either way, I would be spending these final few moments in this world alone. Alone, without him.

Sighing, and seeing no point in procrastinating, I got up and walked towards my bag. I shuffled through it, trying to see if there was anything of that much importance I might want to take with me, if I even could. Something to remember these times I spent here with all of them, together. A kind of memento, almost.

As I kept on shuffling through the bag, I started to lose hope that I would find anything that might work as one. I was about to fully give up when I felt a very familiar texture come in contact with my hand.

It was that image, that image of that Zoroark I found where the Bittercold once was. The thing that defied all my expectation as to what I would find in there.

I could have just left it, and let all of them back at the Paradise investigate it by themselves. But something about it kept bring back this weird sense of remembrance almost, it was odd. And I knew, if I was going to take anything, it had to be this.

Slowly pulling the image out, I put it on the ground to free up my hands before closing the bag for the final time I ever would. I had no need to bring it with me, considering almost all the stuff in there would not be useful to me, so I left it there for Spark to find and use.

Where was he, anyways? It was not like him for him to do stuff like this. Sure, he seemed down, but I had never seen him so down that he did not come back to the house. Did I hurt him by saying something?

I almost considered ditching Hydreigon in a attempt to go find Spark, but I knew that would be a horrid call. Hydreigon knew better then me, after all, and had helped saved my life from Munna who had tried to hold Spark ransom in order to get me to come out. I had to respect his wishes, no matter how much they conflicted mine. I could not just betray him.

And besides, he was going to be fine and I knew it. I was just overreacting as usual. Only over-questioning things that should not be questioned, connecting dots that were never meant to be connected in the first place. If anything, I just needed to get going already and stop procrastinating.

So, softly sighing, I took one last look around the entire place, before walking out of there forever, only to be greeted with the beautiful hues of the morning sky the greet me. On any other day, I would have found some joy at the sight.

Had it not been the last time I knew I was going to see it. If that little thing was not true.

Trying to get the topic out of my head, I started the long walk to Post Town, constantly thinking about everything I had done here over the last several months. I thought about the time we got Conkeldurr to build that house, and of all the times me and Spark walked along this path. I thought about all the times I had here, all the good and the bad times. I thought about it all.

It was sad, really, how I would soon be the only one with these memories. If what Hydreigon said was true, then I really was going to be the only one that remembered all of this. This entire journey would stay situated inside my head, only my own, personal little adventure that in the eyes of everyone I knew here, never happened. Not even Spark.

I never really had a choice, did I?

Sighing, and trying to get the thoughts out of my head, I found myself at the gates of post town, with everyone still asleep in their houses. I quietly took in the silence, taking one last glance at the entire area. To think, less then twelve hours prior, I was walking here to simply de-stress. All that memories of things that I did here flashed before me, almost hauntingly.

In a lot of ways, I wished I had stayed at that party. I really wish I did.

All I could do was hollowly chuckle in my own self-pity as I walked towards the hill, before climbing the steps. Every step was harder then the last, with this being the end of all the experiences I was ever going to have here. This was it.

It was time for this journey of mine to finally reach its conclusion.

After what felt like way too little time, I found myself up in the overhang, with Hydreigon being there as well. We both looked at each other for a while, silently exchanging glances. We both knew it why the other was there.

Eventually, he broke the silence, sighing and saying, "So… are you ready? If you aren't, I'm fine with you taking a few more seconds t-"

I interrupted him. "No, let's just get this over with. There is no point in waiting anyways, is there? I just want to get it over with."

Hydreigon looked somberly at the ground; whether it be in disappointment with himself for having to do this, or the fact that I was being torn away from everything I had known for the last several months, without even a proper chance to say goodbye. Either way, a ball of light slowly enveloped me, before it started to rise bringing me higher and higher in the sky. Post Town lay before me, everything I knew becoming smaller and smaller every second.

Here it was, all in front of me. The entire town.

All the memories of this place. The time I had told everyone I was truly human. All the times I went to Kecleon to get supplies for the mission. Everything.

Everything I had done in the last several months, everywhere I considered home for a long time stretched out in front of me; seemingly forever. I swore I could feel a tear slowly fall from my face as it went further and further from view.

Eventually, I heard Hydreigon ask me, "Is there… is there any… any last place you would like to visit before you leave? Anywhere?"

I took a second to wipe the tear that was rolling down my face off, before saying "Could… could I see the Paradise one last time?"

A slight grin formed on his face. "Of course."

The orb started moving towards the Paradise, gracefully. The landscapes passed by as it slowly approached the main square, with everyone starting to get up and converge at the square, everyone but… but Spark. They all seemingly stared up at the orb I was in, probably trying to find me due to my disappearance. To think this was going to be the last time we saw each other, all the way up in the sky. I could not even hear what any of them were saying from all the way up here.

Suddenly, Hydreigon started speaking again, "There, there is something I have to give you. A gift, if you will."

He slowly approached the orb holding something before putting down a frism, of all things. I looked back up at him before I got it to start playing. When It started to play, I very quickly realized that it was a goodbye message, with Emolga, Dunsparce, Herdier, and even Quagsire chiming in. Everyone was there.

Everyone but Spark.

For a moment, I felt the slightest tinge of anger toward Hydreigon, for having told them when I wanted to just disappear and not make them suffer. But, considering how well all of them seemed to take it, I could not stay mad at him.

When It finally finished playing, I turned my head to Hydreigon and said, "Thank you, thank—"

That was when I noticed something was wrong. That something was very, very wrong. He was staring down at the ground, his eyes solely focused on that one thing. Wondering what could be so bad, I looked down to where he was staring.

When I looked down, all I saw was Spark staring up at me, with everyone else staring at him as if he had done something extremely horrible. That was when I realized he was crying in the middle of the square.

It was then when I realized just how badly I had ignored him in the last few hours I was in this world.

Did I… did I really just pretend everything was fine? Did my own perception of him blind me for the longest time? Did I… really let that happen?

I... I should have known… I should have.

I should have…

And as the orb rose higher and higher into the sky that fateful morning, I found myself slamming my fist against the sides of it, sobbing and hating myself. All I cared about was how much I hated myself at that very moment, for not talking to him at the party but instead trying to get away. I should have helped him.

I should not have left him alone, and pretended everything was fine. Now, he was alone.

And for that, I hated myself. I hated myself all the rest of the way up the sky. I hated myself.

When I reached the edge of the sky, I said one last thing. One last thing on that fateful day.

"Spark, please… forgive me."

"Please…"

And at that moment, everything in my sight was consumed by a bright, white light.

 _ _Spark's POV__

Everyone had long since stopped staring at the orb, instead staring at me for what I had just done. I had just ruined whatever send off they had prepared for him, and made him feel horrible on his way out of here. But I did not apologize.

Instead, I found myself running. Running away from everyone. Running away from it all. I found myself running, holding back tears.

Running, running, and running. Running and feeling horrible.

Running and wondering why all of this had to happen.

Eventually, I found myself back at my house, where I instantly collapsed into a sobbing session. He was gone, forever, and I had made him feel horrible during those final moments. I made him feel horrible, like me.

And so there I lay, sobbing. Sobbing, and hurting. Hating myself, and hating what I had done the entire time.

Because it hurt. It hurt so, so much.

But, despite this, despite all the anger, I swore to myself one thing. One, single, resolute thing.

"That I will never forget you…"

 **Miner7365 Presents**

 **Bitter and Cold**

* * *

…

 _ _it… hurts…__

 _ _it hurts… so, so much…__


	2. Chapter 1: Home Invasion

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* * *

 _Chapter 1: Home Invasion._

 _Riley's POV_

Eventually, I opened my eyes to white, but not the same white I had last seen. Instead, it was the plaster white of my ceiling. It was this sad excuse of the ceiling that was the first sight I had upon waking up. Taking a second to come to terms with the fact that all of that had actually happened, and I really was back here now, I quickly looked at myself and saw nothing looked different from when I last fell asleep. For all I knew, I had just woken up from the same sleep I fell into that summer night what felt like months back at this point.

Sighing, and seeing no point in forcing myself to endure the recent memories the white roof brought back, I tried to get up. It took a second for me to readjust; not being accustomed to walking without the short, stumpy legs that Axew tended to have after all that time in the other world, but eventually it came back to me. Barely being able to see anything around me, I briskly walked over to the light switch before flipping it on, revealing the formerly dimly lit room in all its true, horrid glory.

Seeing it after being used to the semi-clean wooden shack back at Paradise, it felt like hitting a brick wall. Everything looked way dustier then I last remembered; a fine layer of it visibly covering my monitor, along with several other things. If anything, it looked way messier then I ever remembered it being.

Had it been this bad when I last left? Had I just forgotten about it that much?

Closing my eyes and shaking my head in disgust, I turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind me and promising myself to handle it later. I started walking down the hallway, wondering how I was going to be able to handle today.

I knew I could try to tell them, but I was not sure I really wanted to come off as crazy in their eyes, especially in Linden's. I mean, it was always an option, but did I want to do it? For all I knew, maybe it was only some weird dream, maybe—

Stepping forward, I found myself in my living room, with the lights off like everywhere else in the house. But that did not stop the light of day substituting in, with it shimmering through the binders in bands of light, bathing the entire room in blue. Just like the old house and its windows, a subtlety dreams could never pick up on in mass.

Dreams could not emulate actions and things as real as they felt back there, or even last as long as that experience was. I still remembered how much it hurt after Kyurem almost crushed me all the way back when Spark and I were running from Munna, or how many times something seemed way too detailed to be from a dream. I could not just forget, and act like it was all one big fantasy, for the sake of 'convenience.'

No, I could not. I had to hold onto it, if they could not. If what Hydreigon said was true, I had to. for all of them.

For everyone.

Taking one last moment to reminisce, I walked over to the light switch and flipped it on, drowning out the hues of blue previously on the floor with a clinical yellow. Sitting down on the couch for a second, in an attempt to unwind, I looked at the clock and saw that it was…

Two thirty-six in the morning?

That… that could not possibly be right. Taking a closer look at the clock, I noticed something I should have earlier; the hands had stopped ticking forward. The battery must have died overnight, or something of that nature. Then again, I swore I replaced them soon before I left for the other world… oh well, must had just gotten ripped off and bought faulty batteries. Figures, knowing this city and its tendency to grab onto as much money as it can.

Whatever, the time did not matter that much, anyways, considering that anything I had planned to do today was definitely not going to happen after what I had been though. Instead, I would go do something I wished I had prioritized the second I got back here; instead of mumbling around and being angry at myself in my household, like I had been.

I needed to go see Alexia, after all this time. She was no further away then down a few streets, and I knew I could be there within an hour at most. There was no reason to stop and wait, other then possibly trying to think up an excuse as to why I was visiting her now of all times, but I was not going to bother with that.

I knew I would think of something on the way, I was not going to let that slow me down.

It was with that thought, that I quickly grabbed my personal bag and got ready to leave. I knew I could go check in on Drilbur, if I could find his ball laying around somewhere, but I would put that off until later. He could wait.

Taking one last moment to look back at the living room, I walked towards the door, opening it and then finding myself realizing just why the clock had stopped. Feeling the cool breeze of winter in Driftveil, and seeing pedestrians fully prepared for the situation, wearing jackets and gloves and all that, something clicked in my mind. Something that should have clicked a while back, yet I completely disregarded like the idiot I was.

It was with those thoughts as I stared out into the cold and dirtied city, as someone who had a summer's rest and woke up in a winter morning, that I said two very fitting words for the situation.

"Oh fuck."

Breathing heavily, and putting on my jacket as fast as I could; I rushed out the door, running as fast as possible towards her apartment building down the streets of Driftveil, constantly berating myself along the entire way.

Please, be there Alexia. I am sorry I disappeared for months on end, but please. Please, tell me nothing has happened to you. Please, be there.

Please, tell me nothing else has happened.

Please.

And it was with those thoughts, along with the sun shining down at me that Driftveil afternoon, that I ran.

 _Spark's POV_

…

…

Where…

Where… where was I?

My eyes slowly opened, as I found myself staring into a constant abyss of black all around me. Black that was everywhere. Pure, pitch black. Black that seeps. Black that grips. Black that holds.

Black that was everywhere except for one place, an Axew, standing a far away distance. An Axew that looked like only one other Axew I knew about, Riley.

What… what was he doing here? Why was he here?

As I found myself down on the ground, staring straight at him, all I could see was his slow approach. One foot in front of another, a march almost; a proud, stern march. A march that felt so very, very wrong to see him doing.

Something about his eyes. How they gleamed a fiery red, a red they never had been known for. A molten red, almost, one full of malevolence; one foreign to him.

Foreign, yet set in stone, ingrained. I had no idea what it was, yet as it approached, I could only find myself stumbling backwards and saying rapidly in a attempt to stead whatever it was off.

"I-I know you aren't him! Y-you can't fool me! S-stay away!"

It did not heed my warnings though, as the impostor continued walking towards me, its grin ever growing. Wider, fuller, curving upwards.

Bigger, bigger, and bigger. More horrifying, and more demented by the second. Something foreign imposed onto the face of someone I considered a friend. Something wrong.

But, as much as I thought the impostor would say something right as he approached, he did not, only staring with the widest grin I had ever seen on a Axew, wider than I thought was possible. He stared at me, and I stared back into the endless abyss of red that was his eyes, the endless abyss of molten, hot red.

He never stopped walking. I would backed up, but I never seemed to go anywhere. All I could see was red. Red, red, red. Endless red. It kept on walking, and staring straight at me the entire time, its hand eventually starting to try to reach towards me. It came, coming closer and closer near me, closer, closer, and closer. Closer, until it was much further away then I ever thought it would be, as the blare of thunder rang inside my ears and the grin on that Axew's face instantly ceased for the last moment I could see it.

I found myself suddenly jolted awake from whatever fever dream of a nightmare that was, as I quickly darted my eyes around my house, checking for any signs of ghost types before it became very obvious it was my mind being my mind again.

Closing my eyes and shaking my head, I looked to the side of the room where his bed was. The memories of him were not gone yet, at least. That I could be thankful for. I figured I might as well try to enjoy the last few hours I would have them, since sleep was obviously not a viable option after… that.

Sighing, I started staring out the window, taking in the rain outside. It had been such a long day since this morning; me knowing throughout it all that once the sun rose over the sky again, that all my memories of him would be gone.

Gone, to the wind. Like everything I felt like I had at times. Why did this have to happen—

That was when I heard footsteps. Footsteps that made the wood underneath them moan and creak as if to their annoyance. Footsteps that could mean only one thing.

Someone was in the house. Someone from the Paradise I needed to greet. Time to try to say something comprehensible.

Taking a moment to mentally prepare, I turned around fully expecting Emolga or someone but instead seeing a Snivy. A Snivy, that seemed to give me a moment's notice before going back to darting her eye's around the room, as if I did not even exist.

So, I decided to make myself vocal. "Uh… excuse me? What are you doing here? This is my house, you know, and not some place in the middle of the woods where random pokémon come to squat. Care to explain why you came in here?" I said, trying to get her attention.

She slightly laughed. "Oh, it isn't? Humph, well, it sure looks like one, but I'm not one to judge, am I?" I had to restrain a growl as she continued, her inferiority complex making me wish electric was super-effective against grass. "But either way, if this is just your house, and not Riley's like I was told, then I don't see any point in sticking around. Sorry for wasting your time, little rodent, but I'll be on my way now. Toodles."

Just as she started to walk out something dawned on me, something I needed to ask.

"Wait, Riley? What do you want with Riley?"

It was that, for better or for worse, that made her stop dead in her tracks.

"So, he has been around here, huh," she said, turning around to face me from the front step, "care to tell me when, and where he is now, or is this going to be hard?"

"What, do you think I'm that dense? Its obvious you don't want to know where he is for a good reason, so why would I ever tell—"

Suddenly, I found myself being flung from the center of the room, towards the wall near my side of the house, as everything went slightly blurry. It took a few moments for me to recompose myself, as I heard that Snivy mutter something to herself while looking at me, before shaking her head and running off into the storm outside.

It was then, in knowing that she knew way too much for an outsider, that I started to run after her. For all I knew, she was about to harm someone else in some futile attempt to find him, so I had to give chase, and figure out what was going on.

Getting up, I ran out the door as fast as I could towards what was now a small green figure a far way ahead up the road. Whatever she knew, I needed to as well, If not just for myself, then for everybody in Post Town.

It was with that in mind, that I gave chase. But the rain would never let up.

Not here, and not ever again.

 _Riley's POV_

The elevator door finally opened after what felt like hours of long, and way too jovial elevator music. I walked out and started breathing heavily, leaning against a wall, out of breath after running as far as I did. Sure, it was justified, considering the situation, but that did not make it any less tiring.

Either way, fatigued as I was, I was finally here. All I needed to do now was to go find my sister's room, and try to figure out how to explain to her why I was gone for so long without sounding insane. Taking one last second to let my heart rest after all that running over here, I started checking the room numbers on each door one by one in order to find my sister's one. It was the one with the room number four-hundred seventy one, if I had not gotten it mixed up with something else after all this time.

After a few minutes of searching, I thought I saw what looked to be the impression of the door number I was looking for in the dark, leaving me only to get out my flashlight and check. Quickly fiddling around to find my phone light, it came on, revealing the number as the one I was looking for, along with a solitary note strapped on by a piece of tape to the wall under it. I panned the light over it and started to read.

 _To everyone it may concern:_

 _I'm going away for a while, and won't be back._

 _I had some things I can not disclose come up,_

 _and I needed to attend to them._

 _If I don't appear back for a while. Don't worry._

 _I won't disappear like Riley did. I promise._

 _-Alexia_

I stared at it, in disbelief. It was obvious why she had left, to go try to find me. She thought I ran away or something, and went to try to see where in the world I had gone… oh why did you do this Hydreigon? Hydreigon… why in Arceus' name would you tear someone away from their life and think everything would be fine when you sent them back. I mean, I know your world was in danger, but… why?

All I could do was hold my face in my hands as I tried to wonder how I was going to deal with this. Ignoring the sounds of loud Rattata in the walls, I tried my first option, calling her. Quickly putting in her phone number, and sitting back against the wall as I hoped to hear a response back. It rang, and rang, and rang, before I realized exactly where it was ringing from, her room. The very same room I was waiting right in front of.

Well, at least I tried. Besides, at least it had the somewhat funny side-effect of making the Rattata stop in their tracks, any walking they were doing having gone completely silent. If anything, it was funny hearing them being scared at something as simple as a phone ringing—

"There's someone at the door! Get a move on! C'mon!

Finding myself dumbstruck and staring at the door, wondering how in the world I had mistaken boots for Rattata footsteps, I quickly tried to think of a way in, but when nothing came up, I did the only other thing I could think of.

I started ramming into the side of the door, not about to let whoever these people were get away and not about to let my sister's room become the site of a robbery. Whoever these people were, I needed to know.

No matter what, I needed to know what happened to my sister.

 _Spark's POV_

White strokes of blinding lightning brandished the night sky as I ran; water and the road being two constants in the madness that surrounded me. Thunder was seemingly touching down every few seconds, creating a cacophony of noise that seemingly went on forever, no matter how long it lasted. It was like the world was screaming at me to stop.

But, no matter what, I was not going to stop. She knew more than she should have, and I was going to get my answers, one way or another.

Constantly darting over rocks and fallen logs on the path, along with occasionally projectiles thrown at me from behind; I slowly managed to gain on her position on the road. For a Snivy, she managed to run extremely fast, but I knew I was still going to catch up eventually. She had no where to run, no matter how hard she tried.

I just had to keep on running, and gaining on her. That was all I needed to do. Whatever she knew, I needed to know why and how. Whatever she was doing here, I needed an explanation.

Finding the distance between us getting rapidly smaller and smaller the further I went, I tried to close the final gap, dashing rapidly forwards in a foolhardy attempt to try to stop her in her tracts.

Unfortunately for me, all I achieved was getting judged by the trees once more, as I tripped over one and found myself with a face full of dirt. Gritty, wet, slimy dirt.

Mud, as it would be called usually, but to me it was just stupid dirt.

Stupid dirt that spits in my face right as I was about to do something right for once. Dirt that only manages to be a giant insult to everything I stood for. Dirt that signified she, along with any trace of her, was long gone.

At least, until I noticed a silhouette of something in the storm. Shaking my head in a attempt to fling the dirt off, I quickly walked over to it, curious as to why in Arceus' name it looked so o-

That was when I realized something. Something I could not see before through the rain and mud, but I could see very clearly now.

It was Snivy's bag handle, laying there, as if it was waiting for someone to pick it up. She must had dropped it while running, during her attempt to take the moment of me falling down as a chance to get as far of a lead as she possibly could. But mistakes had happened with that, and here I was, holding the one thing she so desperately seemed to grip on to as she ran.

There had to be something in here, I just had to find it. All I needed to do was dig into it, and I would get my answers. But first and foremost, I needed to get it out of here.

Disregarding whatever small chance I possibly had of finding that Snivy up the path, I started dragging the bag behind me, leaving a giant trail in its wake. I felt so fatigued, yet I knew I could not stop now. Sighing, seeing the rain starting to finally let up after that awfully terrible storm, I continued to drag the bag behind me in pure solitude.

All I could do was hope I got back before the sun came up, and before whatever happened then, happened.

 _Riley's POV_

I kept on ramming into the door, hitting it harder and harder each time as the footsteps became less and less audible, before it finally swung open; all to greet me being an open window with a view of the city, and the scant scattered webs of apartment infesting Joltik near electrical outlets.

The impression was scant, but its message was still obvious. Whatever they had come here for was already long gone, and all I could do was try to figure out what had happened. Taking a moment to glance around, I locked the door behind me and walked towards her desk in the middle of the living room. On it, laid a simple yellow note ripped from a notepad of some kind that I very quickly picked up and read.

 _Dear Riley_

 _If you're reading this, I've… well I've made a mistake._

 _I went looking for you. I didn't know where you are, but I intended_

 _to find out. I had no plans to return to this house until I did. I left_

 _something here for you, something I guess you could call a gift, to help you in_

 _whatever situation you found yourself in. In any_

 _case, I hope we can meet each-other again soon._

 _Sincerely, your beloved (I hope) sister, Alexia._

 _P.S. I left some money for you underneath the note in case you_

 _need it. Also, I left your Drilbur in the care of our grandmother,_

 _In-case your wondering where he went. You can find more information_

 _there._

Closing my eyes and silently cursing as to the fact that I was right about the fact that she went to go find me, I put the note away in my bag. Quickly pocketing the money on the table, I took a glance around the room to see where in the world this object she was referring to was, at least, until I saw the dust.

The dust, or the apparent lack there of in a circle shape on the desk. Whatever she had wanted to give me was long gone, having being the target by those robbers that had just came in.

Groaning, I quickly looked around in the desk for a sheet of paper and a pencil, before finding them and starting to write a note for Alexia; the least I could do after seeing she had done all this. It read as follows:

 _Dear Alexia_

 _I don't know where you are, or where you went, but I want_

 _you to know I was here in case you ever return. I'll be heading_

 _up to Mistralton city in order to get my Drilbur and see if I_

 _can find where you went. I'll find you._

 _Sincerely, your formerly missing brother, Riley._

I guessed I had a new goal now, to find my sister and whoever those people were. Taking one last glance back towards the setting sun outside the window, I quickly closed it before walking out of the room and gently shutting the door behind me, not wanting to remember what had happened.

Still, that did not stop the fact that those people had broke and entered into my sister's room off my chest. Who were they? And what did they want?

Getting off the floor, taking the stairs this time for the sake of avoiding having to endure that music again, I reached the main lobby. Not even bothering to report what had happened, I quickly walked to the front door before pushing them open and walking out. Taking one moment upon exiting to look around for anybody who might have been in that room, I started walking back down the now desolate, and lonely road I had ran all the way here using. In being honest, even for Driftveil, it felt cold.

It felt so, so cold for Driftveil. Not just weather wise, although it was pretty bad in that regard, but the city in general. It was more reserved, more tucked away then I had ever seen it before. Perhaps it was just me feeling that way after having been to a place like Post Town, but I was unsure.

All I knew was that it felt different. Same, yet at the same time, different. A more cold, and reserved Driftveil then I had ever known. One that, in a way, felt oddly foreign.

Walking through the cold, desolate evening roads of Driftveil, I only found myself accompanied with my own solitude. Eventually, after much contemplation brought about by the silence and much walking through the streets, I finally arrived back home in front of my house. Instantly walking up and opening the door, I shut it behind me before finding myself falling asleep on my bed not long after arriving. Before I did though, I made one promise to myself, one promise I knew I would keep, no matter what.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will come find you.

It was with that, that I fell into a deep, deep rest.

 _Spark's POV_

I had been dragging the bag back to the house for what had felt like hours, with only the solitude of the beginning of dawn being the only thing to greet me. My back ached with fatigue, screaming at me to stop and rest, but I kept on going, not wanting to wake up in the middle of nowhere twice in a row. Eventually, after I started to believe I would never arrive, the house started to come into view from a distance. Both Emolga and Dunsparce were standing right outside of it, presumably looking for me and wherever I had gone. Thankfully, for both myself and the fact that I felt like I was about to collapse, they noticed me and my state and came quickly rushing over.

"Holy… what in the world happened?" Emloga said, rushing over. "Spark, are you alright?"

"I'm… I'm…" I found myself panting heavily, before saying, "I-I'm fine, just… can you just… just please help me get all the way over to the house."

Without question, she started to support me as I continued to carry the bag the rest of the way, with Dunsparce eventually helping as well when he got over. Feeling like I was on the verge of collapsing the entire way, I eventually made it to out front, dropping it to the side and taking a second to sit down.

But, only for a second, for it was also then that I noticed the very edge of the sun start to emerge over the hills. If I was going to figure out what this was about, I needed to do It now. Breathing heavily, and much to both Emolga's and Dunsparce's surprise, I managed to get myself up again and started ransacking through the bag. Most of it looked like average supplies, stuff akin to berries, a reviver seed or two, stuff of that nature.

But then, I felt something. Something that felt way too soft to the touch to be real. Something that caused me to pull the thing out and see…

"R-Riley?" I said, staring at the object I had pulled out, "What in… what in the world is this?"

In my hand, I held an image. An image of a creature with tan skin. A image with one word I had only seen once before, when Riley showed me it.

A word that simply read "Riley."

Emolga, Dunsparce, and I found ourselves unable to move.

 _?'s POV_

I had been looking at the scene unfold from a far away distance, seeing their reaction to the image and all of that. I was slightly saddened by the fact that I had lost a perfectly good bag last night, but that was not the main thing I was mad at, with that award going to the fact that I had lost the picture of him. I sighed.

Of course, I could not just go up to them and ask nicely, especially not after last night. But I would think of something. I started to walk away from the viewing point of the house from the hill, as to not get caught. But this was not over. Not by a long shot.

This was only the beginning.


	3. Chapter 2: Struggle

…

* * *

 _Chapter 2: Struggle_

 _Spark_ _'s POV_

Emolga and I were still staring at the image wearing shocked expression as the morning sun made its present clear in the sky. We were both silent for a long time, with only the buzzing of Kricketot in the distance to fill the silence. The image lingered in my hand, getting moved by the wind but not losing attention at whatever he was staring at. His face felt so familiar, yet entirely different at the same time; his expression foreign and from another world. One, that was peering out from that one, into this one.

The mere fact that she had this thing in her possession scared me.

I would had continued to stare at it, in both abject fascination and fear, had Dunsparce not broken the silence and said, "So, guys… are we gonna tell everyone else in paradise about this?"

Hearing his words, and being brought back into the scene taking place in front of the house, I said, "Let's just do it later. I'll hold on to the photo, since…"

My silence managed to tell a story on its own as I tucked the image away. They both gave up, remembering how I had been last night.

Shuffling through my bag for a moment, wondering what to say, I eventually continued. "So, why did you come here anyways? It isn't that common for you to come to me in the morning, of all times."

"Well, you aren't wrong," she said, before sighing, "fine, I'll come out with it. Look, we were just concerned you had gotten into more of a mess than you were last night, to put it crudely. And, considering the state we ran into you being this morning… look, Spark, are you okay?"

Looking downward, wondering how to respond, I eventually said, "Hang on a moment, I need to go grab something from inside."

Walking back into the house, in an attempt to avoid Emolga's constant barrage of questions, I sat down on one of the stumps. Looking out the window that shined light throughout the entire room, I could not stop myself from thinking. I still wondered how I had let myself break down as much as I did in front of everyone back there, when they were all happy and cheering for Riley. It was selfish, and disgusting, if I was going to be particularly honest.

And the weird part about it all? Why we had not forgotten about Riley yet. I was not going to stick around, and just wonder why like Emolga wanted me to. I had to figure out what happened, with both Riley and that Snivy.

Finding a new bit of motivation within me, I got up and went to look for my bag. I swore I had laid it somewhere around here, but no matter how hard I looked it evaded me. Under the table, the stump-chairs, everything and everywhere inside the house. All the meanwhile, one bag laid against its side on the wall of the house.

Riley's bag. The one he had left behind after his time here came to its conclusion. Something he would hate to see go to waste, knowing him. I knew I had to use Riley's bag for the time being, despite all the memories it held with it, and my general anxiousness towards possibly losing it. Walking towards the wall it rested on, I grabbed its handle and pulled it across my shoulder. When it came fully into contact with my skin, its surface starting to grind against it. It felt odd, gritty, even. The result of something being scrapped against the skin of a dragon for months. Looking at it with a slight tick in my eye, a bright red insignia stitched on long ago came into my view. The dirtied, long since sown on red insignia Leavanny had made as thanks for saving her son from Inflora forest continually taunted me as I adjusted it. Breathing in and out, trying to repressing feelings that wanted to unleash themselves in the form of kicking over one of the stumps, I walked back out of the house. I was greeted by both Emolga and Dunsparce, talking and acting like nothing had changed. That was, until they noticed the bag I was carrying.

Emolga, after looking back and forth at the bag and I, said, "Uh… Spark, not to be rude, but… what are you doing? Look, I-I know you're the leader of the guild, but… I'd be more than happy to fill in for you in your absence."

Plastering on a familiar smile to my face, I interrupted her. "Look, Emolga, I'll be fine. We really need to figure out what happened last night, and well… I can't really just stay put and hope for the best, if you get what I mean?"

Hearing a slight stutter in my own voice, I held back a bit of anger that tried to get out. Trying to push it aside, afraid of any of it leaking out, I waited for a response. Her eye twitched, with a tick, until she finally gave in.

"Okay, fine then. I… really would appreciate you not taking this situation as drastic as you have been, nor your believing you need to push yourself constantly like, but… whatever then. Let's head down to the town for some supplies and start tracking down this enigma, I guess."

Collectively agreeing on our next course of action, we started walking. The path weaned slowly from cleared dirt to more compacted ground, pounded down over time by the footsteps of many pokémon traveling from Paradise to Post Town. As we walked along the path, with the mountains slowly rising into view from the side, fatigue balled up inside me. Fatigue I had to hide from both of them. Trying to come off as just a bit sleep-deprived, I looked at the far away mountain; the same one we had climbed what had to be less than a day ago. It towered over all, an imposing reminder in the distance.

A reminder, of something that I should had long forgotten about by now.

Getting snapped out of my train of thoughts upon hearing her voice, Emolga said,"So… since we are frankly in the middle of nowhere right now, care to explain that long story of yours?"

Stopping mid-step, I quickly found myself back there, chasing after that grass type with her laugh in the rain. I still remember the grimy dirt that mocked me when I fell down, a spit in the face. Forgetting what Emolga asked me, I imagined myself back there, running down this very same road.

Emolga folded her hands, sighing. "Uh… hey Spark, you there? You've been acting weird this entire time, but... this is entirely unlike you. Is something the matter?"

Getting snapped out of my thoughts, I quickly answered her. "Sorry, I was just… brought back to thinking about what happened yesterday, that's all," I said, slightly gritting my teeth at the falsified truth. "But, you do have a point. You guys deserve an explanation, so let me explain what happened."

Giving off a low, almost inaudible sigh, I started explaining the fun experience that was last night to them. "It all started when I woke up from my rest after a lightning bolt hit nearby, waking me up with the clamoring sound of thunder." Half contemplating mentioning the dream prior, I dropped the notion. "When I finally got myself up off the ground, I noticed I was not alone in the room. Turning around, expecting to see one of you guys from Paradise, I instead saw a Snivy. After awkwardly finding ourselves staring at each other for a while, eventually the topic of Riley was… wait."

I stopped speaking for a moment, much to both Dunsparce and Emolga's confusion. "hang on a moment, this question has be bumbling along in my mind for a while, but I never thought to ask it. Why… why can we still remember Riley? And, is…"

Emolga and Dunsparce looked at me, their faces spelling dismay as I quickly put down my bag and started ransacking through it. It was a disordered mess as usual, but eventually I found the thing I was looking for laying in one of the side compartments, nearly entirely pristine.

Pulling it out, I showed it to them again. "Is there any possible chance this is the cause of that, and not Hydreigon just randomly going back on his promise?"

The question stood in the air, waiting for a respondent to answer it. A respondent, that would turn out to be Herdier, rapidly running over to us.

"W-what is it?" Emolga asked, finding herself slightly on edge after what I said.

Herdier stopped, panting nearly nonstop from constant running. He eventually composed himself, and said, "Spark, thank Arceus you're here! I need to—"

"Can I ask you one simple question? Just one?" Emolga said, interrupting him and leaving me wondering how scared I made her. Was she really that off-put by all of this?

"Sure, but please, be makin' it quick. This is really, really urgent," Herdier said in response, albeit slightly begrudgingly.

Emolga mulled over her words before a moment, before she said, "Okay, fine, I'll make it quick. Uh… do you recognize the name Riley at all, by any chance?"

"Riley? What kinda name is that? That… I can't say I've ever particularly 'eard that one."

There it was, nearly the same thing he said all the way back when Riley first came into town. I still wondered how Riley and I kept the fact that he was human hidden for so long. If I was going to be honest, I still wondered about a lot of things, especially after the whole experience last night.

But my mind especially wondered what was going through Emolga's mind when she said, whimpering on the ground, "It's… it's nothing."

"Uh… heya, Emolga. You don't be lookin' so good, is something the—"

"It's-it's nothing… What was so urgent that you came running down here, anyways?" I said, on Emolga's behalf as she went through an internal crisis. I did not want to have to make her go through talking with anybody right now, nor did I want to illicit anything was more wrong to the resident of Post Town then we already had.

As the conversation came to a dead halt, I started mulling over the implications of all of this. Knowing Herdier, he would not forget about someone as big as Riley that easily, meaning that they all really had forgotten. In a way, I knew I asked for this in a way. But in another way, I could see how being the only one out of three who remembered something could be a bit terrifying.

How had their perception been altered? What was fact or truth to them? Were we alone in remembering him, out here?

Trying not to let any of the grinding concern in my mind leak out, I heard Herdier continue. "Well uh… Spark, I'll-I'll just show you the note I found wakin' up this mornin'. Please, this… this is really important for both me and the little old weasel himself, Lillipup, that you handle this..."

Herdier, being an elder of the village, was not one to usually go asking for help; so when he came running down here, I should had known something was not right. He walked towards me and motioned me to grab a small, already opened envelope sticking out of his bag. Wondering what kind of mess Herdier had that it required him to come running towards the Paradise, I lifted the already torn open flap and started reading the contents aloud, attracting the attention of everyone.

"Hello, this is Snivy," I read from the letter aloud, scared at the contents as Emolga and Dunsparce look up at me. Taking a moment to recompose myself, I continued reading. "I'm assuming you have been looking for your son, Lillipup."

Hesitating for a moment, fearful of where this was about to go, I continued reading."I'll just cut to the chase, I kidnapped him. I demand that Spark shows up at the end of the forest by the Ragged Mountains with the special item he has taken from me, be there or… Let's just say the…!"

The next word on the letter screamed out so loud to me once I saw it, to the point where I could not force it out of my mouth. It slowly floated down to the ground as I stumbled backwards, not believing what I had just read.

Eventually, the words came out of my mouth. The words, that made me think this Snivy had a lot less sanity, and was a lot more demented.

"S-slave… slave market," I said, getting up off the dirty ground and gaining giant looks of concern from both Dunsparce and Emolga. Shaking my head at the turn the day had made, I picked it up and continued reading.

"T-the Lillipup will… will end up on the slave market, down south. Bring Spark down to the forest south of the Ragged Mountains, and his little bag he stole with a certain object of mine, or… or…"

Not being able to bring myself to say the final few words on the blackmail, I folded it back up and put it away in my bag. Both of them were staring at me, their mouths unable to believe what they had just heard. I barely believed it myself, if I was going to be honest.

After a long prolonged silence, Dunsparce said, "This… this is all one big joke, r-right?"

"I… I wish." I said, wondering just how much of a mess that Snivy was. I knew I should have kept on running after that demented mess of a grass type. I should not had stopped, and let her do something like. Taking a moment to look down at the image, now feeling the slightest tinge of regret, I closed my bag and started walking over to Emolga. She was still slightly shaken from the event moments prior, but I needed to talk to her.

Trying not to disturb her, I asked quietly, "So… do we have enough supplies in the bag to deal with whatever we'll encounter on the way there?"

"Yeah… yeah, I… I think so. We only we heading up to talk to Hydreigon, and already have supplies I believe, so we should be fine heading down there with what we have…"

I looked at Herdier and said, "If there is one thing I'll promise you, is that you will have your son back by evening."

"Now, let's get going, shall we?"

All three of us started running towards Ragged Mountains to the south, hoping to get there before it was too late.

 _Snivy's POV_

Sounds of footsteps filled the air as we quickly down the path. The trees varied leaves danced as both Tyrunt and Pansear ran alongside me, Pansear's large, bulky bag slowing him down. Every few moments, I would cautiously give a quick glance behind me, thinking I was going to see a certain little Pikachu I was trying to lead down here with my stolen possessions.

Thankfully, none of my concerned glances had any merit as the only thing that stood behind me was still, silent air. Air, grown stagnant due to a lack of activity, standing around and waiting. Air that would soon remember what action feels like, if that runt tried to 'be a hero' as some would put it. I still disliked that we had to do this in the first place. I really did. But what had to be done, had to be done. And besides, the fact that he had taken such a keen interest on me in the first place showed that… well, something was messed up in that little head of his.

Something deeply concerning. Something, I did not have time to dissect.

Moving forward, seeing Pansear still struggling to keep the contents of his bag under control, I said, "Heh, having some trouble there, Pansear?"

He looked back at me. "Well, what do you think? He's been a fun experience to handle, I can say that much. Was there something in that bag that really merited all of this? Surely we could've just—"

"Yes. Because that little thing you carry around with you is just something you found off a forest trail, right?" I said, interrupting him.

He went dead silent, the point hitting right where I wished for it to. His grip on the bag visibly tightened as I saw him look down at the thing I had seen him carry around from the first day I met him. It was an odd little thing, and I had always questioned why he had it. Whatever the reason was though, it was close to home.

I would know, after all.

Eventually, he continued, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "You're right. Fine, I'll put my trust in you on this. Don't make me regret it."

"I won't. You can trust me on that."

Taking a moment to let that conversation cool down, I looked up ahead. Up above, was a bridge. A empty, desolate bridge, that signified we got here on time.

Perfect. Now, we could do what we planned.

Motioning everyone forward, we all pushed ahead. The bridge looked oddly new, compared to all the tarnished pathways and signs preceding it, and for a moment, I felt slight regret for what I was about to do.

Just a tiny bit, though. Just the smallest bit imaginable.

As well all finally reached the other end, a small smile formed on my face. Now, it was time for the main performance.

"Tyrunt, could you please use earthquake on the surrounding area, like we planned? We wouldn't want them coming at full strength, would we?"

He, with a moment's regret, obliged. The earth shaked, along with the mountain as rocks came down on the path and bridge in front of us. For a moment, I worried the structure would managed to hold as it buckled but never fully broke.

A worry that soon came undone when a large boulder came down, unsettled by the earthquake. It crashed down and broke the bridge into twain; it making both parts of it fall into the abyss underneath.

Gone. Forever, in a place no one would ever look for it. No one who valued their life, anyways.

With a slight nod, we all agreed they were not coming over after something akin to that. Not wanting to be around when they arrived, we hurried on ahead.

 _Spark's POV_

As we ran forward, hoping to catch that Snivy off-guard before she reached where she had told me to meet her with the bag. Still hauling the thing, but knowing what she really wanted at the end of the day, I tried to push forward as fast as possible.

Something, that became impossible once the ground started shaking. Something, that prompted me to scream "Cover!" as the area in front of us became a mess of falling rocks from the cliff-faces. Earthquakes were known for being a rarity around he from village legend, but… but when they did come. They were known for doing heavy damage to this path, sometimes even blocking it off for months at a time on the worse cases. Something, I did not want nor need right now.

Nor was it something that poor Lillipup needed right now. Why did I let this happen…

Trying to get away from the main source of falling rocks I stayed a decent distance away from the walls. Eventually, the earthquake would finally wind down as we all came out of our hiding spots. It had been a weak one, admittedly, but there was still some damage had. Reconvening on the path, we walked forward before seeing how today had went sour.

It was the bridge. The same bridge that both Riley and I had first come here using. All that remained were the two pillars on each side, both of which originally acting as grounders to keep it within place.

The earthquake had taken it out, leaving me without a method of moving forward. Both Emolga and Dunsparce could head on over, through both the ground and the air, but I was stuck on this side of the bridge. We all turned around and looked at each other, wondering what to do in a situation such as this.

"Great. Just great," she said, angering brimming in her face. "Of course the bridge had to break down right here, right as we were approaching where that poor Lillipup had been brought."

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, putting on that fake voice everyone took so truthfully. She looked at me for a moment as if she was about ready to say something, before dropping it. Usually, she was not like this at all, being the positive one in our group. I had not seen this side of her since the Pawniard brother's attack on Dunsparce now several months back, and it was honestly starting to concern me.

"Whatever then. Let's find another way, I guess. Spark, do you have any ideas as to how we can get you over this ridge?"

I tried to think of something, anything that could possibly work, but all my mind drew was a blank. Getting slightly mad at myself, I picked up a rock and threw it at the water. Of course this earthquake had to happen right as—

Wait. Why did the rock not bounce off of anything?

Deciding to investigate this further, I dropped my bag and started walking towards the edge of the waterfall. Picking up another rock, throwing it up and down in the air a few times to get a good grip on it, I threw it in to make sure the last one was not a fluke. It was not. The waterfall hid a cave behind it, a cave that might lead us to the other side of this ridge.

Turning around, I raised my voice and said, "Hey guys! I found a possible way through! There's a cave through the waterfall!"

Both Dunsparce and Emolga broke away from the little conversation they were having, and walked over to where I was. She said, "Spark… are you sure? That seems a bit risky, with the river flowing out and all…"

"Here, let me show you." Deciding actions spoke better than words, I picked up another rock and threw it in. Her eyes widened as it became clear that I was not speaking out of fatigue.

"Well I…" she started, before hesitating as if to quickly arrange her words. "Look, I'm sorry, to put it bluntly. It's been a long day, and I shouldn't have doubted you. It's just… we're all on edge after both yesterday and what has happened today, and I didn't want to take any risks."

Holding back any reaction to the validity of Emolga's concerns, I said, "Look, it's… it's fine. Tragedy tends to do that to pokémon, you know? Besides, we all are on edge right now, and for a good reason. Let's just get a move on, okay?"

Having heard my words, she walked off. We all needed a second to get ready to take the dive into the place behind the waterfall. Taking a moment to make sure Emolga had walked off far enough away so she could not see me, I shook my head in slight anger. This felt so hard to pull off, without Riley here by my side. But, I knew I had to persevere, otherwise…

I was not going to think about that. All I had to do was persevere through this, and everything would be fine.

We all went into the cavern one by one, following Dunsparce getting our bags in their through bringing them in through the ground. I had to hold back any emotions that wished to let themselves out as we all walked forward; the area around us actively shifted into a maze of tunnels and labyrinths, much to my and everyone's chagrin. I would have to keep walking, when I wanted to sit down and rest for a second, because that was life.

Trying to keep myself together, and noticing everyone's aspirated expressions, we walked.

All I could hope was that I would still be able to hold myself together by the end of it.

 _Snivy's POV_

Quickly glancing behind myself again in paranoia of them having actually gotten over, I found nothing. Sighing under my breath, thankful I had not seen them, I faced forward again. In front of me, the rendezvous point Pansear had set in the note he ghost wrote for me laid.

I was illiterate, at least in runes, so he obliged to write it in my place. Not happily, of course, but he still obliged to my request.

As we continued walking, I eventually said, "Okay, I think we have arrived. I did not seeing them tailing us or anything of that sort, so they probably got redirected into that cave we found earlier."

Tyrunt, putting down the bags of supplies he had been carrying, said, "Good. Nice to know that one of your plans actually had at least some success, after that… whole fun thing with the village down south."

Ah, that. That whole fun thing, involving the angry villagers. Why, oh why, oh why…

Sighing, trying to not let the repressed memory surface, I started setting up camp. The Lillipup, who was still fighting against the bag, made it clear he was not going to let up anytime soon. As we originally walked from the path to the crossroads, he had woken up and tried viciously to break from Pansear's grasp. So, in response, we did the only thing we could think of.

We bagged him. Of course, the top was left open slightly as to make sure the poor thing did not suffocate, but besides that, he was basically stuck in a prison cell. To be honest, I felt bad for him, having to be the victim in this attempt of mine to get something that belongs to me back. But, it was how it was.

It was not gonna be a fun next few hours, and that was for absolute sure as I watched and waited for that Pikachu to come out of the woods.

I waited, hoping for this all to be over soon, so I could move on with my search.

 _Spark's POV_

 _Ragged Abyss_

As we walked through the dungeon, all that off-set the almost off-putting silence was the occasional cheery line made by Emolga. A cheery line that would, more often than not, get ignored and be left to ring along the desolate halls of this place. The entire dungeon looked like a polar opposite of the Ragged Mountains, with all the walls tinted blues and tans. I had been told stories in the past about how dungeons took from the surrounding landscape to create their interior, and I guessed this was one of those cases with the waterfall.

However, it was managing to prove much more of a challenge than both Emolga and I's typing advantages, even in spite of our advantages. One example was a Gyarados that had held us up for way too long, giving them more time than I would of liked. Time, in which that Snivy was preparing for my arrival and Lillipup was suffering. Time in which my regrets for attempting to lunge at her and tripping on a log, instead of waiting for a clearer shot, mounted and built upon eachother.

Eventually, we would find our way out as the world of labyrinths and tunnels shifted back into one solitary hall. It lead out into the other waterfall, the one present on the other side of the Ragged Mountains. Dunsparce moved both of our bags over as Emolga and I crossed past the waterfall.

I quickly dashed through the streaming water and found myself falling face first into the dirt. As I stood up, I saw Emolga soaring above me and Dunsparce emerge out of the ground with both of our bags dry, onto land.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it?" I said as I quickly shook off the water that had accumulated on to me.

Emolga, with a slight chuckle of disbelief towards the short distance crossed, said, "I guess you could say that…" she shook her head. "It's funny, to think an hour or two ago, we were only over there…"

"Yeah, and that's why we need to be fast about not giving them any more time then they have been given to prepare." I said, grabbing my bag off the ground and going through it, making sure everything was in order.

We more than likely would had continued talking, had the screaming not begun. A series of loud barks for help from the woods that caused us to share glances. We immediately started running towards the source after a moment, running off of fear of what had happened to him. After only several minutes of jogging as fast as possible towards the source, trying to haul the bag as fast as possible, we came face to face with the perpetrator.

It was that Snivy, and two other pokémon that were presumably working with her, standing by her side. They almost did not notice my presence, being held up by what looked like them holding a bag; I almost contemplated making a attempt to rush them, until I noticed her turn around from the commotion to face me.

"So, I see the rodent and his two best buds decided to come over and get that Herdier's son back. I would've preferred you not bring others into this, but it is what it is. Hey, Pansear and Tyrunt, the little mouse himself has arrived, and he has friends!"

Both of them turned around, holding a bag with a rapidly moving object inside of it. A object, that soon dawned on me had to be Lillipup. It had to be Lillipup, being forcefully kept in that bag. Oh, how disgusting are these pokémon.

"Oh, you are so disgusting, why I—" Emolga started to say, before I stopped her.

Whispering, I made an active effort to keep her from ruining any chances we had. "Listen, we can't start burning bridges yet. I… really don't want to see Herdier having to hear that he will never seen his son again because we couldn't keep quiet, okay?"

She, albeit hesitantly, dropped her aggressiveness as Snivy's coterie approached us. Every part of me wanted to wipe that smirk expression on her face, but I knew I could not. Because if I did, I was afraid what these sick, sick pokémon would do to Lillipup.

With a slight smirk on her face, she approached me and said, "Oh, glad to see you decided to show up. Was starting to wonder where you were, or if you were even coming… glad to see you didn't get distracted."

Holding back a growl, I asked, "Is that all you have to say to me, petty words? Or are you going to fulfill your end of the bargain, like you promised me you would on that note of yours?"

The smirk weaned off of her face, before she said, "Oh, I would be more then willing to do so, if all my stuff is returned right here and now."

I almost went to grab the image out of my bag, before I heard Emolga calling me over. "Hey, Spark, can we talk for a second over here, if you will."

Diverting my attention away from Snivy, much to her apparent displeasure, I walked over. Once I made it, I put my bag down and asked, "Oh, uh… what is it, Emolga?"

"It's something semi-important, but," she said, while motioning towards the other group converging, "can we talk where they can't hear us? I... really don't want to risk anything, considering the circumstances."

Seeing no real reason to protest, I followed her wishes. Picking up my bag containing my supplies and more importantly the image, while she carried the other one, we started walking. We made it a fair bit away from the 'discussion grounds,' but not far enough to where it looked like suspicious.

"Okay, so... listen, since that whole thing did not work, what are we planning on doing involving getting Lillipup back? We need to think of something, otherwise the poor child is going to…" She shivered in fear, at the very thought of it.

"I... really don't have an answer to that. But, I would rather give up a piece of memorabilia than a child's life any day, so I say we—"

"But here's my question. What if it's more than that? What if we forget, like everyone in Post Town?"

Hearing the possibility come up again brought back that feeling of insecurity. It was the same one I had felt last only a day ago. Trying to hold it back for a moment, I quickly got the image out and stared at it as she continued speaking.

"Listen, I know we value Lillipup's life, but... we need to figure out why she had this. For all we know, Riley could be in actual danger right now back at his home, and this is the only lead we have!"

To be fair, it was odd that she held this image in her possession. Perhaps Emolga had a point here. Whatever reason she had them for surely could not be good.

Giving in to her claims, I said, "Fine, fine. Let's keep the image, I see what you mean. But, what else are we going to do?"

She put on a small, but conniving smile. "I mean… all she asked for was the bag, didn't she? Perhaps she might not notice the image's absence, until we are long gone and ready to deal with her if she returns…"

I uneasily rubbed my hand against my head, feeling a slight anxiety towards all of this. "Alright," I said, "let's try it. Sounds like it has a chance to work."

Picking my bag up again, with the contested image inside of it, I went back to where I was previously. Dunsparce, upon seeing me returning, stepped away from the bag he had protected while Emolga and I talked.

"So, I'm assuming you didn't just come here to throw petty, meaningless words at me, right? Am I going to get my bag back, or is this going to awry?" she asked as I approached, each one of her words bring my mind back to the topic of the image.

Why did she care about it that much, anyways? What... what was so special about it?

Thinking my options over for a moment, I went with the most rational choice I could think of. "Yeah, yeah... I have it. Let me go grab that bag you felt the urge to kidnap a kid to get back."

The words came out hoarsely, but she either did not notice or did not care enough to notice. I was hoping this was going to go by smoothly and she would not realize the absence of the image. Hopefully, I was going to be able to get away with this and have this whole crisis be averted.

As the two approached with the bag, grumbling to themselves, I stood still in anticipation. Unfortunately, I only noticed at the last minute I had forgotten to close one of the compartments; the compartment in which the image was once in. She noticed this after taking quick glance at it.

A quick glance, that made me regret every decision I had made up until that point.

"Oh. I see you've been perusing through my belongings?" all three of us cringed up as both Pansear and Tyrunt stopped walking. "Funny. I think I asked for the whole bag back, thank you very much."

My expression wavered as this situation proved to get worse and worse. Snivy started looking through the bag as both of her allies stared at us grumbling things to themselves. Eventually, she came back up, staring straight at me.

"Oh. You..." she said, anger boiling out of her voice. "Oh, you little... what, did you find a little shiny and wanted to hold on to it or something! Why I'm going to—"

"Yeah, and why do you care so much? Are you seriously demented enough to care more about an image than a poor child's life?"

That was the tipping point for her. A simple line, asking why she cared. A simple line, that set her off like there truly was no tomorrow.

Right as I tried to back off, after realizing it was a bad decision to push as far as I had, she launched both of her vines straight at me. They almost managed to get me, but I was able to ward off their advance through purposeful disorientation, launching a ball of electricity to confuse them momentarily.

Surviving the initial barrage, I made it a fair bit away from the chaos and saw both Pansear and Tyrunt come running in to join the fray. Everyone started fighting each other, without any reserve or hesitance. Emolga, for one, had started distracting – from the sky. She constantly dodged barrages of leaves coming towards her as she attempted to attack from the sky. Taking in the madness that the whole situation had devolved into, something dawned on me.

Tyrunt had that bag in his hand. That bag, which held Lillipup. That's the only leverage they had. And if they lost that...

Noticing Dunsparce rushing towards Tyrunt in the ground, I ran towards him in hopes that we could overwhelm him. Unfortunately, one factor had lapsed my mind.

A factor that punched me in the middle in the gut, before showing himself to be Pansear. He, with a slight smirk, asked me, "Oh, were you going somewhere? Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't let that happen."

Feeling anger building up inside of me, I charged. I was not going to allow some random bandit to cause any more pain for this child, whether he liked it or not. Rushing straight towards him, I jumped up in the air and slashed at him with my tail, hardened with a silvery glow. He took the hit, stumbling and grumbling backwards, but not reacting as badly as I expected.

"Oh, that thing your species is known for having. I'm not sure whether you're an idiot or what, since fire has a very well-known capacity to handle metal, but I guess I'm going to have to teach you the hard way."

Before I got a chance to try to keep up the pressure on him, he rushed at me with fist covered in flames. It singed the area around where it hit, leaving me off-balance and giving him an opportune

moment to sweep me straight off my feet, leaving my face to crash into the dirt.

The disgusting, grimy dirt. The one that had made a joke of me multiple times at this point.

"You really are a runt, you know that? You couldn't even take down some measly fire-type, am I right?" he said, while circling around me, posing to attack any movement. "It's funny, really, how I see pokémon like you claiming to be heroic all the time."

He hesitated for a moment, before continuing with a slight chuckle. "But, are you really? Or are you just—"

That was the moment in which I saw Lillipup running past, distracting Pansear for the moment I needed him to be. I tackled him from the ground, before he had a moment to react, and started fighting him close up and personal. Slashing him with my tail, I jumped off of him to avoid a flame covered punch to the face. He put up a fair bit of resistance, but his failure was near certain once Dunsparce joined my side. We both continually barraged him from both sides, with strikes from both underground and from up top. I was heavily hit by some of his flames he would send out, leaving me feeling tired and starting to doubt my capacity to fight. But at the end of the day, he was the one that collapsed on the ground, in front of both Dunsparce and I. We both stood still, and looked towards Snivy, who was standing around looking straight at us. Feeling confident that this was finished, I asked her, "So, do you know when to give up, or are we going to have to deal with you, too?"

She stared at me, with what I thought at first was disbelief. Her eyes brought themselves downwards, staring at the ground the ground as I waited for a response.

"Hah… hah… hah…"

Put off by the sudden laughter, I hesitantly walked forwards. "You… you really are mad, right?"

"hahahahaha… oh, you're so gullible, aren't you?"

I tried to figure out any reason as to why she was saying this, before I finally saw Tyrunt in the background. Tyrunt, carrying a bag with a moving thing inside of it.

My focus slipped from Snivy for just one second as I screamed, "Emolga! No—"

Suddenly, a giant, ringing pain came over my right side as I stumbled backwards. Dunsparce started running off as I saw Pansear approach me. I tried to dodge his next punch, but fatigue from both earlier today and from the fight caused me to stumble. I fell to the ground, seeing the double images of faces looking down at me from above.

This… was all one giant mistake. One, giant, fatal error.

She looked down at me, her with a sort of pity. One that would be given to an inferior. With a slight chuckle, she said, "Hahahaha… you know, it's funny. There's a little saying I like to follow, that I figure I might as well share with you. Sometimes, battles don't come up to who has more power. Sometimes, they come up to who can deceive the other best."

"Heroes don't win battles. Deceit wins battles. Now rest tight, little runt."

And with that, along with jarring pain on my face, everything started fade away. I could barely hear anything, but the last few words they said while they ran off as I lost consciousness.

"Hey Snivy, we need to be quick! I see a group approaching from the distance! Where… where are we going?"

"We're are going down to… to…"

Eventually, I completely lost consciousness as I heard both the sounds of running, and of regret.

…

…

…

As I slowly opened my eyes again, all I could see was darkness. Everything was black as far as I could see around me. It was exactly like that one dream, yet without anybody within view able distance. Slowly getting up, I looked around for somebody, or anybody in the general vicinity. I walked around for what felt like a while, but with no results.

"Hahahaha…" she chuckled, with both of her large orange-red eyes staring straight at me.

Feeling a intense rage come back over me, I started trying to chase her. She ran, just faster than however fast I could go. This day felt like it would never end as she kept going and going, faster and faster and faster.

"Come after me, little Spark. You hate me, don't you? You despise me…" she said, running faster than I ever possibly could keep up with. "Come and take me down, like you so desire to…"

Seething with rage, I continued to give chase. The landscape turned from pure blackness to the path, and the weather, the constant roar of lightning. She irritating chuckled near constantly, demeaning me and everything I had been through.

"Stop! You monster! Stop running already!"

I did not care how irrational this was. I did not care that she was not real. I wanted revenge. Because I _hated_ her.

She turned around and smirked at me. "Okay, whatever you say."

Suddenly, she stopped as everything melted back into the backdrop of a dark abyss. She stared at me, with both of her bulbous eyes, making me hesitate for a moment. Only for a moment though as I lunged with her without any haste nor hesitation.

I was not going to make the same mistake I made then, letting her get away. Not now.

Angry towards her, and everything about her, I said, "Okay, now you're going to—"

"Wait…" I said, now seeing nothing where she once was, but more black, "where did you…?"

"hah… hah… hah…"

The laughing again. The demented, demeaning laughing. The one that seemed to follow me wherever I went.

She chuckled, from what sounded like everywhere yet nowhere. "You really are gullible. You thought that I was really here?"

"Come… come out here!" I said, "Stop hiding and fight me!"

"Oh, you're so, so gullible. It's hilarious. hahahahaha…"

"Stop! No, stop!" I said, while futilely trying to cover my ears.

"Hahahaha, it's so, so funny… how you try to resist."

"Stop! Make it stop!" I said, screaming, while buckling over to the ground and trying everything to make the laughing go away.

"Hahahahahahahahaha! It's so funny!"

W-why…

Why does it never end…

Please… stop, stop!

Please, make the pain go away! Please!

W-why does everything go wrong…

Why… why…

why…

…

…

…

 _Riley's POV_

When I woke up from rest, I expected to see sunlight. Instead, I woke up to both darkness and loud, almost racketing noises outside. Instinctually, I held on tighter to my pillow to try to block out noise.

"Oh, for Arceus' sake, it can't be morning yet, can it?" I said, mumbling words out as I gave in and got up. Taking a moment to sigh at the great start to the day, I looked around at the rest of my room, still unused to being back here.

Wondering what could possibly be so bad I walked up to my window. Barely seeing anything other then the faint orange outline of something in the distance, I pulled up the window, to find…

A skyscraper. Covered in orange and red flames, dancing around it and eating it whole.


	4. Chapter 3: Anger

Notice. The rewritten section ends here, so expect a dramatic drop in quality from this point on. You've been warned.

* * *

 _Chapter 3: Anger_

 _Riley_ _'s POV_

This could not be happening…

Smoke was billowing out of all the windows, with fire rapidly consuming the building…

People were… screaming…

Falling…

Hitting the grou-

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

My body immediately jerked up from what was probably one of the worst nightmares in my entire life. I felt cold sweat all over my body.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

I groaned at the fact that the alarm had not stopped and quickly hit the button on top. I then just laid there and stared at the ceiling for a while contemplating what in the world I had just gone through…

It had only been a day since I had left that other world and here I am, already dealing with other issues and problems. I wondered where Spark was now… probably having nothing to do with me, since Hydreigon said they would all forget. Did not stop me from wondering though.

I looked out the window and saw the morning light shimmering through the shades. It reminded me a bit of the old windows me and… well Spark had back in the other world.

Deciding enough was enough, I got up and remembered instantly that I had forgot to turn off my computer last night. I quickly staggered over to it and move the mouse around a bit to see that…

It was the local airport's home page, I sighed and closed off the tab, deciding I would go to Mistralton another way after the terrors I got last night. I turned off the computer and sat back to just take in the sunshine for a while.

Well, I did, before the ringing began.

Slightly annoyed, I took my phone out and saw it was… Professor Linden.

Any annoyance I had went away as I answered the call, having forgot to go see him after the whole thing that occurred in my sister's apartment building yesterday.

He said, "... Is this a joke? You actually answered!"

I looked down towards the ground in guilt for not calling sooner, "I… I guess…"

"Dude, are you okay? Your not in any danger right now, rig-"

"No, no, nothing like that," I sighed, "look, can we just continue this conversation in person, not to be rude but, you know how I am with phones."

He did, in fact, know that I only had a phone out of necessity.

"Yeah, sure man, meet me in my lab in central Driftveil?"

"Sure, see you there." I hanged up the phone.

Figuring I should get ready right away, I went into the bathroom and got dressed for the day, seeing the lovely brick wall view from out my bathroom window.

I then walked out the front door of my house with my bag, towards the local bus stop. Once I got there, I sat down on the nearest bench and looked up at the sky, with the clouds lazily passing by. I had always loved looking at passing by landscapes and buildings, with each one of them having their own personal story to tell.

My train of thought was interrupted when I heard the sound of the bus slowly going towards the ground, with me getting up and getting on it. I grabbed my bag and quickly dug out my I.D, hoping it had not expired with it thankfully not having done so. After I was approved, I walked towards the back of the semi cramped bus and sat down. It was a little serene to be honest, until the bus started moving again, with that marking the beginning of the loud noises.

I had forgotten a fundamental rule of Driftveil, _never use the bus system._

I looked forward my head to see a little girl clenching her Minccino hard, with it being visibly in pain. I could not do anything to help it though, despite the look of pain in its face. She did not seem to have her father with her, probably using the bus to get to school.

I had grabbed a map showing where all the stop for the route was, with mine being one of the longest waits. I figured I might as well try to stop the Minccino's suffering while waiting.

I said, "Hey… you know your hurting that Minccino, right?"

She stared at me with one of the most betrayed faces I have ever seen, "No… she loves what I'm doing, look!"

I then saw the girl proceed to squeeze the poor Minccino even harder…

That is when the words, "help," weirdly enough coming from somewhere around the Minccino, were heard by my ear drums… I just assumed it was just my mind not being fully awake and gave up trying to help the Pokemon, with anything I did to try to help it just resulting in more pain for it.

Sighing, I turned my head to the window, staring at the passing by beachfront. The bus was driving next to the oceanfront, with many people deciding to spend the day relaxing on the beach, some with their water type Pokemon.

Sometimes I wished that I could have just went to the beach with my sister instead of going through all of this… It had been a long time since me and her had done that, with the last time it happened being long before I even went to the Pokemon world.

I looked towards the sky through the window, and saw it was still low, with it being only a hour since I woke up. I sat back in my seat and got ready for the long ride.

 _Spark's POV_

I woke up to darkness all around me.

My eyes darted around trying to lock on to something but there was nothing to see.

I started walking, hoping to find something in the black abyss that was the area around me.

 _Riley's POV_

After a while the bus finally came to the stop closest to the lab which I got off at. The lab was still a decent walk from there but it was the closest stop available. I started to jog.

As I jogged, I contemplated whether I would reveal to Linden what had happened to me or just say I did not know. I was not sure whether he would think I was insane or not, with him being a scientist…

Before I came to a decision, I found myself in front of a small warehouse turned into a laboratory Linden had gotten for his studies. I slightly chuckled at the absurdity of it but hey, where else are you going to test out rare Pokemon without them accidentally breaking the walls or something to that regard.

I opened the door.

As I opened the door I saw him working on something on the lab table, with him noticing me and walking in my direction, and saying, "I guess you're really back, man."

I felt a slight tinge of regret for not contacting him earlier, with him being a old school friend of mine. He had went on a journey like me but did not get very far in it, finding his interested instead in how Pokemon worked rather then the watching them at work. Looking back, it was him coming to me saying that he did not think going on a journey was meant for him which lead me to quit also, with him still having his Vanillite. We used to joked about how us both going was the only reason we went on the journey in the first place.

It felt so odd to have been without these people for a year, and even being able to push them to the back of my mind without worrying about them, but those days were over.

I said back to him, "what do you, think I was kidnapped or something."

"No, just," His eyes faced towards the ground, "where were you anyways."

The question had come up a lot faster then I originally expected it to, and I did not know how to respond to it. What would I tell him, that I was off to some magical world with only Pokemon? He's a scientist, and would think I had went mad over the last year. My expression while I thought all of this slowly turned into anxiousness, with my eyes darting around the room trying to find something to divert the subject. I was not usually anxious, but this time was a exception.

He eventually noticed this and said, "look, if it is not a subject you want to discuss right now that is fine, just, let us go sit down at the table over here and talk about other things first."

I started walking towards the table, regretting I had made my apparent touchiness about the topic obvious in my expression, with it going any chance of me making up a stupid excuse like I had to get away for a while or such and such. I sat down at the table, with him sitting at the other side.

"So," he looked towards the ground, "Have you seen Alexia's apartment room yet o-"

"Yes I have, there is something I need to tell you about it."

His head perked up, "What about it?"

I sighed, not wanting to have to say what I was about to say, "I heard… people, in her room. They sounded like they were stealing something, so I had to ram down the door only to find just a open window and a note on the table from Alexia referencing a item that was not there anymore."

His eyes had widened in concern at this point, "When… when did you see this."

"Yesterday evening, with it being the reason I sadly could not come to visit you that day." I omitted the fact that I had completely forgot, although to be fair had my sister not been a factor, I would have remembered to go visit him first.

He looked back towards me, looking as if he had just mentally smacked himself for considering something. "So, how long have you been back in Driftveil anyways?"

"Since yesterday evening," I did not like where this conversation was going but I could not start lying to someone I had known for years about something as inconsequential, to him at least, as that.

He saw the look that had formed on my face, "look, dude, I do not want this to seem like I am interrogating you or anything, but you kinda disappeared for half a year, and with Alex… Alexia missing for about a month now you have to understand my situation."

He had a fair point, with me and now her having been gone for a while in his eyes.

"So, I know you may not want to answer this, but I need to know why you had gone missing in the first place…"

I rested my right arm on the table, "if I tell you, your going to have to promise me that you'll not tell anyone els-"

He put his fist on the table., "look, dude, come on, you've been missing for half a year, do you really think I'm going to go blabbing my mouth off?"

I rested my face on my hand, "okay, fine, but you are going to have to promise me you will not laugh at me or call me insane or anything after I tell you this, alright?"

"Sure, dude, unless you did something crazy, like what that kid back in school who claimed he was a Pokemon and can fly tried to do, if you remember that."

I mentally groaned at the fact that he had made the comparison to that kid back in school who was deemed way too unstable to be allowed to handle Pokemon, either in battle or in general. with it all culminating when he jumped off the diving board in the opposite direction you are supposed to claiming he could fly.

I raised my face off of my hand, "How do I say this," I sighed, "so, yesterday evening I woke up on my bed…"

"But before then I…," I returned my head to its previous position of resting on my hand, not wanting to see his reaction when I said the next sentence, "Well, I had went to sleep one night, being in this weird room with mist to all sides and a small body of water in the center."

"I walked towards the center and… saw myself as a Axew."

His head perked up, "Was… was it… it… like that one… one… lunar dream… I told you about where I was a Tru… Trubbish?"

"Are you okay, I can stop talking if that is a issue or you think I've gone ma-"

He interjected, "No, no, please… please just… just continue."

At this point his calm demeanor had vanished, with the words I had said somehow affecting him in a way I did not expect them to.

I said, "Well, no… it was nothing like that one lunar dream you once had, considering the fact that the next moment I found myself falling out of the sk-"

"U… u… uh…" He started stuttering, a look of concern growing on his face.

"Is something the matter?"

"Ar… are you… you sure that is… what... happened entirely, 100 percent?"

"Yes, I am sure, is that a proble-"

He got up without saying a word and walked towards the counter near the table, just staring in the mirror for a while. I got up and started walking towards him.

"Hey dude, is something the matter, do you think I lost my mind or…"

He, still facing away from me, said, "why…"

I said, "why what?"

He looked over to me, "look, it doesn't matter… do you still have your Drilbur or..."

I said, "no… a note in my sister's house said she left it in Mistralton city."

He sighed, "I want you to follow me then."

He started walking towards to the storage part of his lab, with me following behind him.

"So… have you ever heard of Delta Species before?"

I shook my head, not knowing what in the world he was talking about.

"They have been something I've been studying for the last 4/5 months, ever since you left," he picked up one of the poke balls laying on the table, "It would probably be better if I just showed you."

He took the poke ball and clicked the button in the center, unleashing its contents, revealing what looked like a Charmander that looked like a skeleton.

He put the poke ball down, "this little guy had been one of the biggest parts of my research on deltas for the last few months, with him being the first delta I found."

I looked down at the Charmander, "he's not the the most talkative thing is he."

The Charmander's nose lifted up in disgust after I said that, with his arms being crossed and his face facing away from me.

"Well… guess I angered him."

Linden sighed, "don't worry… he just, well… has never really been one of the most friendly things, being honest."

"But… if you have to go to Mistralton city… I want you to take him."

The statement seemed to surprise the Charmander more then me, with it just looking at Linden with a expression of slight betrayal.

I said, "why would you give me the main subject of your research, besides, he doesn't seem happy about it either, and I don't want to make him suffer."

"Because… I do not want to keep him locked up in a science lab for all of his life, I planned on giving it to some trainer coming by asking for a starter I deemed worthy of it but I think he would be better in your hand's"

He then walked away from me and towards the now angry at the world Charmander that was sitting in the corner of the room. He bent down to look at it.

"Look, I know going back out into the world may seem scary, but… he is a old friend of mine that I know will treat you well," he raised up the poke ball, "just, give him a chance, please…"

Linden pressed the gray button in the middle of the poke ball, bringing it back into the poke ball. He then walked over to me and handed it to me.

He said, "I trust that you'll treat him well, like how you treated your Drilbur.

"Why would I not."

He chuckled, "I don't know, just, formalities and way too many starting trainer sendoffs, I guess."

I watched as he started to walk back towards his lab desk but I remembered that he never really told me something.

"Hey, what was with that whole reaction earlier to what I said?"

He stopped moving instantly and walked back towards me, with a… regretful expression forming at his face.

"What are your thoughts on breaking promises, promises to people you're not sure whether you'll see again…"

As he made that comparison, flashbacks of promises I had made to Spark came to the front of my memory.

He saw the expression change on my face, "I guess you understand the feeling… I made a promise to someone, with me not seeing that person… for a while now."

"Alexi-"

"No, it was not Alexia, I have no idea where she is, like you. It was someone else, someone you probably do not know," he sighed, with slight tears forming at his eyes, "someone who needed help desperately that I could not provide."

"Dude, I'm sorry about that, is there anything I can d-"

"No, just… just go, please. I just need to think for a while…"

I saw as he walked back to his table, with him sitting down and just staring at the keyboard. There was nothing I could do to help the situation so I walked outside.

I looked at my phone's clock, and saw it was a little after noon, with the earlier sunniness in the day having evaporated into swirling clouds with a storm about to start.

It was going to be a long day.

 _Spark's POV_

Eventually I did find something after walking for what felt like hours in the darkness, with it being… Snivy just standing there, smiling at me.

She seemed to chuckle before she started to run, with me giving chase, having nothing else to do in this black void. It started resembling the hill more and more the more I chased her on.

She seemed even faster then before, with me unable to catch up to her in any timely manner. It was almost as if she was, teasing me or something.

The rain and lightning from the original chase had returned too, with it coming down even faster and all the sound I heard being composed of the splashing of rain and the booming sound of thunder.

After a while I eventually just screamed, "why are you doing this."

That is when she stopped and turned around, allowing me to be able to pounce on her, pinning her to the ground.

"So, you caught me…"

I heard her start to slightly laugh.

"But, have you really?"

That is when she seemingly vanished, and I started hearing the laughing she had just done amplify itself, becoming more maniacal and omnipresent throughout the entire room, with the rain continuing the come down rapidly and the lightning not ceasing, just adding to the cacophony present in the room.

I tried to cover my ears but it was no use, with it still sounding just as loud. Anywhere I went, anything I did, I could not get away from the laughing. It was haunting, scarring, like someone holding something right at the edge of you reach. She had answers, yet would not give them to me.

It would not stop, whatever I tried and did, so I did the one other thing I could.

I screamed.

 _Riley's POV_

I had just arrived back at my house from a unremarkable bus ride. I walked off, seeing the photograph and poke ball still secured in my bag. Once I got inside, I checked my phone and saw it was a little after noon with the rain still pounding loudly outside.

In my head, I planned to head to Mistralton city tomorrow morning, so I was going to go buy some items in preparation for the trip. That could wait for at least a hour however, with the rain outside persuading me to wait a bit.

Figuring I should not keep the Pokemon Linden gave me in its ball all day, I took it out and released him from it. As he came out, his eyes widened in fear as he looked around confused at his new surroundings before they went back to normal and started to walk to the corner of the room.

Feeling bad for the little guy, I started to walk towards him, and bent down.

"Hey little dude, are you oka-"

"No one understands…"

I backed up, with the Charmander turning around.

I said, "You… you can talk?"

He started walking towards me, "wait, you can understand what I say?"

At this point the main brunt of the shock had faded, with my demeanor being somewhat calm. I figured I would just try to act normal and see where this went.

"So… let me try this again, my name is Riley, and you'll be with me at least until we get down to Mistralton city."

He said, "You… you seem oddly calm about this."

The statement was unexpected but truthful, with it taking me a second to process it. Being honest, anybody besides me probably would have taken at least half a hour to recover from learning that they can talk to these creatures you have seen all your life but to me at least I had been able to do that for the last year, due to the whole Hydreigon ordeal.

I said, "Well… I guess you could describe me as a guy that accepts things easily."

He started to walk away, "Whatever…"

He started to walk away, presumably to explore the house. I decided to leave him out of the poke ball just because I did not see a need to keep him cooped up in there. I turned on the T.V. in the living room while waiting for the storm to past, with nothing that interesting being on. I got bored fast and figured I should do some research on the route, so I quickly ran to the computer in my room and saw the Charmander sitting on my bed as I quickly turned it on.

I heard chuckling coming from behind me, "T.V. got boring for ya?"

The boot up screen had appeared at this point on the monitor, with it slowly starting up. I rolled on my chair to face the bed, "quite talkative for a Pokemon Linden described as lonely."

"I am, usually, but… it's not like every day you find a human that is able to talk to you."

I chuckled, "can't deny that."

I went back to the computer screen, with it showing the route to Mistralton. There did not seem to be any road closures or anything that would stop me going down it today or tomorrow so that was covered. I turned my head towards the window and saw that the rain had finally cleared up, so I figured my excuses for not going out had run out and I decided to finally get going to the Poke Market a mile away from my house.

I turned to face Charmander, "I'll just leave you here to get acquainted with the place."

He nodded in agreement as I walked out of the door of my room. I walked towards the living room, and had one last look around the place before opening the front door and walking into the bright light shimmering in from outside.

 _Spark's POV_

My eyes opened up to the forest I had been knocked out in, with everything looking hazy due to the a combination of sleep deprivation and someone ramming its head into me…

"G- -p"

"Ge- up"

"Get up"

I turned my head slowly to see it was Lillipup, the Pokemon my group had been trying to save with the…

The image in his mouth.

He noticed I was awake, "oh finally… you're awake."

I slowly turned my head to where Emolga and Dunsparce were when I was knocked out to see that they were not there anymore.

I asked Lillipup, "do… do you have any idea where they went?"

He put the image down, and said, "I have no idea… I just ran and ran the second I could and came back once I saw that Snivy and t hem were not here anymore."

After a while I finally managed to get up despite my mind screaming for me to go back down due to sleep deprivation and overall fatigue.

I picked up the photo which Lillipup had put down at this point, "well, if they aren't here, let me at least honor my promise to Herdier and get you out of here."

He nodded in agreement and we started walking back towards the ridge, unknowing of what we were walking back towards.

 _Riley's POV_

I found myself at the Poke Mart after walking to there from the Bike shop I had just purchased a bike for the journey in, with me grabbing one with a seat capable for a small Pokemon to sit on, due to me not wanting to keep Charmander stuck in a ball all day. I grabbed a grocery cart, and started grabbing things as I checked them off my mental checklist. I was able to fit a surprisingly large amount of items in the shopping cart as I walked through the various shelves that were present in the store. I got weird looks from people as I did this, with half of them being 13 year old trainers thinking that the store was made solely for them.

After grabbing a ludicrous amount of items I found myself at the front counter, with the bored salesperson slowly ringing everything up. I had gotten a bunch of stuff I questioned whether I would need, but figured I should get just in case, like a few poke balls. After a while, he finally finished ringing up the items and handed me them in a very flimsy bag that looked like it was about to cave in on itself, but it would work.

I thanked the guy and walked out, and was about head back home before seeing what looked like… a rally? Curious, I put the stuff in the bag into my own personal bag and headed to the crowd forming around the pedestal in the park.

There were a few hundred people besides me there, with most people looking like they had no idea what in the world this was about, like me. The stand seemed to have speakers set up on it connected to a microphone with a stand in the middle of the podium.

Everything was somewhat calm, at least, until someone who I can only presume to be the main speaker came out from behind the pedestal and walked to the microphone, with him… feeling oddly familiar. Like I had seen him before, somehow.

"Ahem, is this thing working," he asked as he tapped the microphone to confirm it was working, with everyone's reactions in the crowd providing the answer of yes to him.

"Ah good, nice to know this works. Anyways, I came to speak to you all today about… well, degradation."

"Degradation of… well, the ideals of our society due to the repeated attacks by Team Plasma…"

I heard murmurs in the crowd.

"They, Team Plasma, have made us lose our trust in Pokemon, and have spread lies that they can somehow achieve perfection without us… that we corrupt them."

"But I have seen things, things that contradict this viewpoint shared by many members of Team Plasma. I've seen life through their eyes."

"I know how they think, how they feel, how they live, and it is not much different then how we are."

Five more men walked on stage, presumably being with the main presenter, standing behind me.

"So, I ask you all this. Do you dream of a world, a world where humans and Pokemon can be together and work together as equals. Then, we just ask of you one thing."

"Join us."

"Join our cause."

Something felt wrong with these people, so I started to walk away as fast as possible.

Something felt very wrong.

 _Spark's POV_

Everything still was hazy but it was getting better. I had to support myself by placing my hand on Lillipup's back. Everything hurt, but I had to keep going, otherwise I would just disappear like Emolga and Dunsparce had.

"Hey, is that our friend Dunsparce?" Lillipup asked me.

I looked in the direction Lillipup had been facing and sure enough, despite my hazy vision I could see him clearly.

I staggered towards him, "Hey… hey dude… are you okay?"

His eyes visible raised themselves at the sight of me and Lillipup, "hey… have you… you seen Emolga?"

"Me and Spark were looking for her," Lillipup said in my place.

Being honest, we were looking for her on the way back but we were not really actively trying to find her, with getting back to post town being at least my main priority at this point. I guess Lillipup was being optimistic about everything as usual, with this just being another day in his eyes…

Just another day… I wish I could view today like that…

"Well… I think it would… probably be a good… idea… if I come with you guys…" Dunsparce stuttered out as usual.

Sighing, I said, "let's go."

 _Riley's POV_

I swung the front door open to Charmander's surprise, with my demeanor having completely changed since I had last seen him.

He looked concerned, "hey dude are you okay."

"Yeah, I'm… fine, might have a change of plans though."

He looked at me, "what do you mean, I was just starting to like the place."

I looked behind me outside, still seeing the rally going on down the street. It did not look like it was going to stop any time soon.

I looked back at Charmander, "we… need to get going to Mistralton, today."

"But wh-"

"There was this… look, I just want to find my sister as soon as possible."

He sighed, "okay then, I'll be waiting."

I could not really explain the feeling I had right now, so I made up the excuse of wanting to find my sister faster and said that to Charmander instead. I went into the back room and started to pack up. It would take a few, but I figured I would be able to get out the door by sunset. The memory of the dream I had last night was still fresh in my head but that did not matter, all that mattered was getting away.

Something felt very wrong in Driftveil and I did not want to be around when it decided to show itself.

 _Spark's POV_

We found ourselves at the ridge, with the two normal pathways still being down due to the earthquake from earlier.

We all sighed, and Lillipup followed me and Dunsparce into the Hidden Chasm. It was not going to be a fun experience going back through here with me being sleep deprived but we all would manage.

 _Riley's POV_

It had been a few hours since I had begun packing, but it was finally done.

Charmander peeked into the corner of my view, "I know you want to find your sister and all, but can it wait a day, since I just met you…"

"Okay, let me be truthful with you, I saw this rally happening down the street with 100s of people in it. The speaker… well… I felt as if I had somehow seen him before even though I had not," I sighed, "I'm just afraid something bad is going to happen in Driftveil tonight and I do not want to be around when that thing happens."

He nodded in understanding, "fine, I'm assuming we are going to go right away?"

"Yeah, do you want to go back in your poke ball or go on the extra seat on the bik-"

"I'll opt for the bike, you know how eerily quiet the inside of Poke Balls are?" He started chuckling, with me quickly putting his Poke ball away into the bag, with it obviously not being useful right now.

I started to walk towards the door, "well, I made all the preparations so let's go then." He started to follow.

I opened the door to see the setting sun in the distance, with the bike sitting right in front of the house. I got on the front seat and Charmander quickly followed having jumped onto the back seat, almost making the bike tip over. I started to ride.

The starting to set sun in front of me felt like it was searing my eyeballs, but I did not care.

I was going to find Alexia.

 _Spark's POV_

I did not know how we managed to get through the dungeon without our bag, but we did. I stumbled out of the waterfall even more tired and fatigued, but Dunsparce and Lillipup urged me to carry on.

I would make it back to town, and get Lillipup to safety.

 _Riley's POV_

We were almost at the northern gate out of the city when I saw a plane flying unusually low overhead. The sky was in dusk at this point, with it being in between night and day. It looked like it was going southward so I stopped for a second and looked behind me, curious as to where it was landing. I was on a hill overlooking the rest of Driftveil, with the route leading into

That is when I realized it was not landing.

It was heading straight for the tower.

 _Spark's POV_

It was very early in the morning, but Herdier was still outside, worried sick about Lillipup. When we walked into Post town, Herdier came running towards Lillipup.

"Your… your okay son!"

"Yes dad… yes I am…"

I would have said something, but I collapsed from exhaustion, having completed what I promised Herdier. He would not have to go through losing someone like I did.

He would not have to feel the feeling of loss like I did.

 _Riley POV_

As night cemented itself I looked from a hill leading to the exit of Driftveil at what was a few seconds ago the biggest competitive battle location in all of Unova go up in flames as smoke sauntered out of the building forming layered clouds on top of it. It was just like the disturbing nightmare I had last night. People were jumping off the side of the building, attempting to get out before the structure collapsed in on them, and screaming could be heard all the way from the side of Driftveil I was at.

I thought it had just been a nightmare, but it became reality. Crying at the tragedy, I stared at the building for a long time.

Who could be insane enough to convince themselves and others to do a horrific act like this.

Who?

I kept on asking myself why when Charmander walked up to me, "I know it's tragic, but we need to go."

Figuring he was right, I wiped the tears off my face and got back on the bike.

I did not let one thing go however, and that was my anger.

I would find whoever had done this.

And I would make them pay.


	5. Chapter 4: Hydreigon

…

* * *

 _Chapter 4: Hydreigon_

 _Spark's POV_

Grass crunched beneath my feet as I walked forward. The sun shined down with occasional clouds rolling past it, creating a mellow yet peaceful mood. Light wind would occasionally blow through the grassy plains, creating waves of bending grass. It was serene, calm.

Everything I was not feeling at the moment.

Sighing, I looked at my bag, seeing Snivy's message and the image still securely in there. I had been travelling for about a day now, with no one back in Post Town knowing where I was except for a vague message I left. It was better that way, with me rather not having what occurred with Lillipup repeating. I could not handle having another pokemon suffer because of my mistakes.

Eventually, the top of the buildings of Scarlet town started to appear in view. I had went by this town back when I lived in the south once and only once. It was a ghost town back then, like it is now. My feet went from a slow walk to a jog, and then to a run when I saw Emolga tied against a pole in the center of the town. She looked distressed, having a piece of cloth tied around her mouth to muffle her.

As I ran towards I saw her attempting to say something but being unable. I untied the piece of cloth around her face.

"He… hey look ou-"

I felt the crunch of a fist hitting my head as I fell down towards the ground. The cloth previously around Emolga's face floated down to the ground like a feather as it slipped out of my hand. My head landed facing towards the plains, showing me that the town had been set on fire. The flames danced jovially, spreading to the grass present outside in the plains and from building to building, burning down years of history and erasing a place from the map forever.

Pansear bent down to face me, "you forgot her, didn't you?"

"You left her there to us, to rot, because you were too tired to come find her."

The last thing I felt was a kick to the face, knocking me out.

 _Riley's POV_

I kept on biking, with the only company I had being Charmander. I could not see Driftveil from where I was standing, with the trees blocking any view I could have of it except for the sky. The trees overshadowed everything, with them being like outreaching hands asking for help, like the people in the collapsing tower in Driftveil. I stopped the bike and kicked up its kickstand, and just stared up at the sky.

Even a mile or two away you could still see the clouds above Driftveil. The night was clear, with there being only a few straggling clouds and the giant black one forming over what was the building in Driftveil. I still could not comprehend that I had seen this all coming in a dream yet did nothing. Charmander looked up at me, and then just at the sky in front of us.

It was a travesty, a tragedy, a horrid thing that I thought could not possibly ever occur in my home town, my city. Yet it had.

What had happened?

I had sat down on the grass, with my face being covered by my two hands. It was something you heard about in the news happening in other places, not right in the middle of your city. But here it had. Charmander looked at me not knowing what to say, after all, he had not been through a experience of loss like this before.

He walked in front of me, and asked, "Linden… Linden is alright, right?"

"Yeah… he… he had no reason to be there, so he should be fine."

I had a slight doubt myself and got out my phone in a attempt to call him, but could not due to the fact that the networks were busy. A bunch of people were probably calling emergency services or family members after something like this, so it made sense the signals would be full.

"Didn't work… I'll try again when we get to Mistralton."

He hanged his head in defeat, and start to walk over to the bike, sitting next to it. I looked back up at the sky, with the moon having gotten fairly high up in it. It was time to go to bed. Charmander grudgingly returned to his poke ball as I got out a sleeping bag from my backpack, and went into it. I was deep in thought for a lot of the night, but eventually I was able to find rest.

If fainting out of fatigue after endlessly rolling in bed is considered rest.

 _Spark's POV_

I jerked up from a hay covered bed, with my mind taking a second to comprehend the fact that it was one of Swanna's inn beds. It had been just another nightmare. My mind took a second to take in the surroundings, with it being quiet probably due to the events yesterday putting everyone in a not so talkative mood. I looked out the window and saw it was about mid-day.

I had no excuse to stay in the bed, so I got out, and then tripped over something, creating a noise able to be visibly heard throughout the entire building. I looked behind me to see the cause of me tripping, with it being a wonder bag with a small wooden tablet that had a messaged etched into it. It read, "This is a thank you for saving my son. -Herdier."

The peacefulness in the room ended as I heard Dunsparce quickly waddle into the room having presumably just heard me trip. He said, "I'm… I'm so glad that you're awake."

I looked inside the bag Herdier had gave me as a gift, probably to replace my old one, and saw that the image was in there. Sighing, I picked up the bag and then faced towards Dunsparce, "Did anything happen since I collapsed out of fatigue earlier today?"

"No… I wouldn't know… I… I was in the inn bottom floor waiting… to make sure you were alright."

"Don't you have Emolg-," his previously uplift demeanor soured, with him sadly looking down at the ground.

"Sorry, I… forgot for a second there that we… we had not found her yet, please just excuse what I said."

He turned around and waddled out of the room slowly, obviously not wanting to talk after being reminded of that. I had ruined yet another person's day this week and had not even left the inn room yet.

I grabbed my bag and just sat on the bed for a while, wondering how in the world these last 2 days had well been so bad so to speak. These pokemon, these criminals seemed to have this weird affiliation with Riley I could not figure out. It was obvious they wanted to find Riley, with them having this image and getting angry at me asking for their intentions supporting that theory, but what did not make sense is how they even had a image like this. Maybe they had contact with Kyurem and he told them that he was human but even he would not have a image like this.

I got the image out of the bag and just looked at it for a while. It was a surreal concept, a image that was indistinguishable from real life. The closest thing here was art, and it never got as realistic as this image was. Maybe they just wanted it for its value.

Deep down I knew I was just trying to find a excuse as to why all of this had happened and that what I was thinking was not the truth. It at least got my mind off of Riley for a while though. Eventually thoughts about Riley did start to come to the front of my mind. I wondered where he was, and how he was faring. Whatever he was going through, it certainly can not be as bad as it was over here right now.

After staring at the image for what felt like forever I put it away. Whoever these pokemon were and whatever they wanted in the end of all of this, it was obvious that the situation had gotten bad enough to warrant telling Hydreigon about it. Maybe he might know what was going on and be able to help. I grabbed the bag and walked out into the main area, keen on fixing the mess I had gotten everyone into by holding onto the image of Riley.

I just hoped it was not too late.

As I walked into the main room I only saw a few regulars and Swanna. Despite the low amount of pokemon inside, it still had the same jovial mood present in it every other day I had been in there.

I noticed Dunsparce was not present in the room and asked Swanna, "hey, have you seen Dunsparce around here since he left the back inn room earlier?"

"Yes I did, he waddled out the front door with his head down. He seemed awfully somber, did something happen."

"Yeah… I ran my big mouth, thanks for telling me where he was though," I started to walk towards the door but then I remembered that I forgot to thank her. "Oh yeah, and thanks for helping me when I collapsed in front of your cafe."

"Oh, no problem deary, after all, we have to stand up for each other and help each other when someone needs it, don't we?"

"Ye… yeah… that's… that's true."

It was like the world was taunting me with mistakes I had made in the past. I walked out of the Inn looking towards the ground after I talked with Swanna, due to either of us having nothing more to say. Post Town was busy as ever, but without Dunsparce and Hydreigon in sight.

Herdier walked towards me, "Spark! I didn't expect for you to awake from your sleep for a while."

"I guess I defy expectations."

I heard him chuckle a little bit before continuing to speak, "but seriously, thank you for saving my son. I already gave you that bag, but is there anything else I can do-"

"Yeah there is, have you seen Hydreigon around?"

"Hydreigon? I haven't seen his face around these parts since yesterday morning. Then again, I was too busy huntin' for my son to be around square much that day, so I wouldn't know."

I sighed, "thanks anyways."

"No problem, anytime y'all need some help, just tell me, I owe y'all one."

I waved my hand in thanks and then walked away, with my hopes being slightly down that I would be able to find them. Everyone I asked gave me the same response Herdier did, that they had not seen him since yesterday. Every time I heard a pokemon say that they had not seen him my hopes dampened more and more that I would be able to find him.

Eventually I found myself on the hill overlooking the rest of the town. The sun was starting to set but it still had a while to go before it went completely down. My mind wandered for a bit, with me just asking questions to myself about what Hydreigon possibly could be doing right now or where he could be before I gave up. In a situation like this, where time was of the essence, I could not rely on going to someone who was nowhere to be found. I was going to have to try to find Emolga without him, and fix all of this myself. I picked up my bag and went down to the Kecleon Bazaar, to get ready for the journey.

That was, before I bumped into a Zoroark.

Our eyes locked for a moment before I saw his fist go in front of his mouth and clear his throat, making a ahem sound. He then said, "local, I presume?"

"Yeah, are you new here or…"

"Yeah, but I don't plan on staying," he turned to face me, "I was just passing by in order to restock and such for a journey up north. Sorry for wasting your time, I'll be going now."

And with that, he started to walk towards the hill where he was heading originally before I knocked into him. The entire encounter felt odd but I shook it off, chalking it up to just the entire day being weird and more important matters taking precedence there. It still felt odd though.

As I approached Kecleon's Bazaar he said, "oh hey Spark, how you doing?"

"Fine, I just need to get some of the usuals for a trip tomorrow."

He brought out the usual stuff Riley and I would get for our journeys: some oran berries, a few orbs, reviver seeds, etc. I paid using some poke I had left over from before Riley left, and then started to leave before remembering something.

"Hey uh, do you have any maps of places down further south? I might need it."

"I… I might have something, I'll go check," he went to the back and start to search around for any maps he had of places to the south, with him eventually bringing some dusty scroll and saying, "this might be what your looking for."

I opened it to find that it was a comprehensive map of the entire area down south, and asked Kecleon, "so, how muc-"

"Nothing, you can have it for free."

"You… you never do that though… there isn't a catch to this right?"

"I mean, consider this a thanks for the Bittercold and all that, besides, that thing is 10 years old, if someone wanted to buy it they would have by now."

After waving goodbye to Kecleon, I blew the dust off the map and located where I planned to go, Scarlet city. It was the only lead I had, so might as well try. I put everything I needed for the upcoming journey into the wonder bag Herdier had given me, and started to walk out of the town. When I got to the entrance, I took a step back and just looked at Post Town in all its glory. Despite what had happened over the last few days it was still peaceful, serene, all the things it had been when me and Riley came here.

It was sad to have to leave this place for a while, but I had to. For both Riley's and Emolga's sake, I had to figure out who these pokemon were and why they wanted to find Riley, and save Emolga as well. It was going to be a tough journey but I had been through tougher. I waved the town goodbye and then started to walk down the road.

As I walked down the road I noticed Dunsparce walking along the side of it towards Paradise with his head down. I felt angry that I had just forgotten about him in getting ready for the trip down south. After running towards him I heard him stop and turn around to face me.

"Look I'm.. I'm not in a state that… that you probably want to… to talk with me in… in right now…"

"Dude, I know what your going through, Emolga was everything to you, wasn't she?"

"Look… please… I.. I don't want to ta.. talk right now," his face turned to face the ground as he slightly wept at the truth of the statement.

His relationship with Emolga was like the one between Riley and me. He felt like he would never have a day when she just was not there anymore yet that day had come. Maybe he had suppressed it for a bit but me forgetting and mentioning her caused any emotions he was suppressing involving her to come flooding out, resulting in this.

We both sat there for a while, before looking up at the Rainbow of Hope. It was still there, with it still shining like it had for the 3 previous days.

I heard Dunsparce say over the slight sobbing coming from him, "are we… we going to… to do anything to help Emo… Emol… Emolg-"

He did not seem to be able to complete the sentence, with it just making his mind delve further into the pit of depression it was already in, causing him to weep harder. I understood what he meant though.

He leaned to my side, and I said, "yes, yes we are. I was planning on going to rescue her tomorrow. I originally was just going to keep it secret from everyone else but… its obvious you would suffer more if I left you here while I went to go try to save her. You want to come?"

"Is… is that really… really a… a question?"

I sighed, "I guess not."

We both continued to stare at the rainbow of hope for a while. The clouds slowly floated by in the sky, making it seem like it was just a regular day. The rainbow itself still shined with its usual vigor but, oddly enough, it seemed slightly duller. It was not extremely noticeable nor something that seemed that major to most but, considering what I had been through, it scared me.

It deeply, deeply, scared me.

I got up and Dunsparce followed suite, with us both heading back to Paradise. He went off to where he usually goes to sleep while I went back to my house, just laying in one of the two beds present in the room. I had so many questions, questions that would not be answered until I found Emolga, but they still haunted me. But one question oddly enough haunted me more then the rest, with it continuing to be present in my mind long after night had come before I finally fell asleep.

Where was Hydreigon?

* * *

…

 _this pain_ … _this constant pain_ …

 _will it ever go away? because it hurts_ …

 _it_ _hurts._ _so, so much_ …

…


	6. Chapter 5: Crash and Burn

…

* * *

 _Chapter 5: Crash and Burn_

 _Riley_ _'s POV_

My eyes started to open, with the world being hazy all around me. I accidentally said, "Spark, it can't be morning already, can it."

"Who… who's Spark?"

My eyes quickly jolted open to see Charmander standing over me. I must have been muttering in my sleep, causing me to refer to someone not involved in my life anymore. It was making up excuses so I did not look like a crazy person time.

"He's uh, a old Pokemon I had."

"Oh come on, you know I don't buy that. I heard you muttering a bunch of things last night."

I stood up, and started to fold up the sleeping bag I was just in. "What kinds of things?"

"Oh you know, something about you using Dragon Rage? It was strange to say the least."

I silently cursed under my breath, hoping he would not hear me, although knowing him he did. How was I going to rebut this?

I put my hand behind my head in nervousness. "Well uh… yeah I have the… the strangest of dreams, I'll have you know."

"So, your not going to tell me then? Okay then, I'll figure it out when you accidentally slip up and it comes out of your mouth."

I sighed. "Whatever, if that floats your boat." I started to walk towards the bag to pack away the sleeping bag before realizing something, "Wait… didn't I return you to your poke ball last night? How are you out here?"

"Heh, uh… yeah, about that…"

My eyes turned to a open poke ball laying on its rims flat on the ground. "H… how?"

"It's uh… it's a skill, I guess you could say."

"Well, whatever then." I went over and grabbed the poke ball, closing it and putting it in the bag. While putting it away I saw a breakfast sandwich I had packed for the trip and took that out, along with some pokemon food I packed as well for Charmander.

"Here, catch." I threw the package of pokemon food at him, with him having to dive to grab it without it touching the ground.

"Thanks." He sarcastically remarked as he opened and ate the food thrown his way. I on the other hand opened the breakfast sandwich I had found in my bag and started munching on that, with me leaning besides a tree as I ate it, looking up at the sky. No sign of the smoke from yesterday could be seen in the cloudy mess today was. It was like the sky itself was trying to forget it ever happened, with it being completely covered in gray looming clouds. I would have liked the serenity of the moment, but way too much had happened yesterday for that to be a possibility.

Finally, my phone ringing broke the silence, with the caller being Linden, "Hey dude, I've been trying to get in contact with you all of last night, where have you been?"

"On the way to Mistralton," I looked down towards Charmander, with him having taken a break from eating to hear the conversation taking place. Oddly enough, he seemed to have tensed up."I left last evening, figuring the earlier I left the faster I would get there."

"You… you heard about the whole tower thing last night, right?"

"Linden, I didn't just hear about it… I saw it happen."

His demeanor, at least based off what I could hear from the phone, shifted. "Dude, I'm so sorry about that…"

"Don't be, it's not like it will change anything."

"Whatever then," his voice was still slightly somber but it had lightened up from before, "I'm assuming you're on Route 6 right now?"

"Yeah, I was just about to start heading back down the route before you contacted me…"

"Well, don't let me keep you waiting, we'll talk later?"

"Yeah, I'll try to contact you when I arrive at Mistralton."

"Well, see ya later."

And like that he hanged up. Charmander looked at me and then dropped his food. "I've lost my appetite."

"W… why?"

"I just have…" he sighed, "Look, is Linden alright?"

"Yeah, yeah he is," I looked forward to the route ahead, "It's a long way to Mistralton, so we should probably get going."

"Well, don't let me stop you, lead the way."

I was confused as to why Hex's demeanor had suddenly changed but I disregarded it. I went and grabbed the bag, and shoved the trash that eating had produced into it. I then went to the tree I leaned the bike against and rolled that onto the route, it order to continue biking. Charmander jumped on to the back seat while I sat on the front seat, with me starting to pedal down the route.

I tried to have some small talk with Charmander. "I was thinking, do you have any name you would want me to refer to you as or the sort?"

"Hex, I guess, it… sounds cool." he was awfully grim but I dismissed it.

My head turned around to see him for a second, "Hex it is I guess."

I silently biked for a while, with my mind drifting back to the events earlier today, where I accidentally muttered things in my sleep. I had almost forgotten about Spark and all of them after the hustle-bustle the last day and a half had been. Hex in a lot of ways reminded me of Emolga, with them both being sarcastic when talking about day to day things but in the end being optimists. Well, usually being optimists, with today seemingly being the exception. What was happening with him?

My chain of thought was interrupted when wind blew at the bike causing me to have to shift the front wheel in order to not crash, with it almost causing Hex to fall off. The weather was starting to get a little bad but it did not look like it was going to become a thunderstorm or anything of the sort, with rain not even coming down yet. My mind wandered back to the subject of Emolga, with me being curious of one thing, and one thing in particular.

How was she faring right now?

Everything continued being silent, due to there not being anything noteworthy to talk about. I started to instinctively look at the side of the route every few minutes, for a reason I could not figure out myself. It just felt like there was something here, something I had forgotten about.

Something I was not sure I wanted to remember.

 _Snivy's POV_

"Okay, this should be far enough."

We had just arrived in the ghost town of Scarlet city, exactly as far south as I wanted us to go. I turned around to see Pansear and Tyrunt unloading the two bags they had collectively been hauling around all this time, with one of them being full of our supplies and the other containing an angry Emolga attempting to break out of the bag.

I heard her angrily say from inside said bag, "You guys won't get away with this! Spark and them won't let you!"

It was not gonna be fun dealing with Emolga, due to all three of us not getting a blink of sleep since yesterday, but it had to be done. I said to Pansear, "Okay, Pansear, can you please make sure she doesn't break out of that bag while I go get a rope to tie her against this pole with." Emolga presumably heard this, which caused the ruffling in the bag to only increase, but it would not matter in the end anyways.

I started to fish around in the supplies bag in order to find the rope, finding it only after a few minutes. But it was not the only thing I found in said bag, with me also stumbling across a key I must have accidentally thrown in there, not thinking, during the rush that was yesterday. I held it up to my face, seeing my reflection on it. It still felt odd.

My chain of thought was interrupted when Pansear said, "Hey, you coming with the rope? I don't think you get how hard it is to hold someone down like this."

"Sorry, I got distracted, I'll be right over." I stashed the key away in the small mini-bag I had been using ever since I had lost that image I had to that Pikachu. When I turned around, I saw what he meant when he said he was having trouble, with the bag looking like it had a mind of its own, constantly moving and ruffling. I quickly ran over with the rope.

He looked at me. "Are you ready?"

I nodded. He released the grip on the bag as I got out my vines. It did not move for a while.

"Where did sh-"

That was when she attempted to quickly bolt out of the bag, in order to escape. It was a futile effort though, with me pinning her down with my vines almost immediately after she left the bag. She choked out, "Spark and… and Dunsparce will bring you all to justice… m… mark my words!"

Pansear sighed, "If I had a poké for every time I heard that one." I held her against the pole as Pansear started to tie her against it with the rope, much to her displeasure.

I let go of her as Pansear finished tying the rope. "Look, this doesn't have to be painful, if you just tell us what we want to know, we'll let you go."

She struggled against the rope, desperate to get out. "Never… I refuse to betray my friends!"

It was obvious she was not going to be cooperative and let us do this the easy way. "Hey, Pansear, can we have a bit of a talk, away from here?"

He redirected his attention after he finished tightening the rope to me. "That's perfectly fine, you lead the way."

We went into the back alley of a nearby building. I said, "So, since its obvious that Emolga is not going to be cooperative, what are we going to do?"

Tyrunt interjected, "I mean, couldn't we just wait until tomorrow, we are all fatigued."

Both me and Pansear turned are heads to see Tyrunt standing at the edge of the alleyway, with him having followed us in there. He stayed at the edge of the alleyway, presumably because he did not seem to be able to fit in the narrow space..

Pansear said, "I agree, we all are not in a state of attempting to get information from her right now, although we are going to need someone to watch over Emolga in order to prevent her attempting to make a getaway, with these watches preferably being in shifts. So, any volunteers for the first one?"

There was silence for a little while before I raised my hand. "Considering I didn't have to haul around bags like you two did or deal with getting tackled by a angry Pikachu like you had to, Pansear, it would be only fair I take the first shift."

No one had any reason to disagree, so we were all in agreement. Pansear said, "I'll do the second, since I'd rather get it done earlier rather then later. And besides, despite me getting tackled I did not have to deal with having a Dunsparce using dig on me like Tyrunt over there had to deal with."

Tyrunt looked at both me and Pansear."So, I'll go third?"

I said, "Yeah, unless you have a issue with that."

"I don't particularly see why I would have a issue, so no."

"Okay then, its settled. So, when are we going to start this whole shindig?"

Pansear said, "What better time then the present?"

"Hmph, fine then, see you all when my shift is over."

I walked out of the alley, seeing that Emolga was still struggling to get out of the ropes on the pole. She would run out of energy eventually, but considering she was a electric type and how energetic they were known for being, it would be a while before she finally kicked the bucket and gave up.

Eventually she did kick the bucket and gave up, falling asleep or being on the borderline between awake and asleep. Either way, she was incapable of attempting to make a major getaway, so I just sat back and watched the clouds go by in the sky. Whatever the case, I was going to be here for a while so I might as well enjoy it.

 _Riley's POV_

"Oh Arceus, why the rain."

I had been riding down the route for a while, with the clouds getting darker and darker the longer I was on the route. The wind had gotten stronger too, but that was not the bad part.

The bad part was the rain. I could deal with the wind, but I could not deal with a muddy route causing my wheels to constantly shift and sink. It was going to basically halt my progress for the day if the rain started to come down, which it seemed intent on doing.

I looked behind me, at Hex. I still did not get why he was being so odd today. Before I could continue the train of thought however, I remembered he had a flame on his tail and said, "Hey, Hex, are you okay over there, the rain isn't painful or anything, right?"

He sighed in response to me saying that, and then snapped at me. "It's not like my flame is like one you would see on a regular Charmander Riley. the rain doesn't affect me or it, so please, stop worrying about superficial things like this and focus on the road ahead."

I turned around again to face the road. "I was just concerned, that's all. You don't need to be rude about it."

"Sorry for snapping, just… I'll tell you if something is a problem. I actively dislike being treated like a baby, I'll have you know."

"Fine, fine," I sighed, "Apology accepted."

Everything went back to being silent, like how it had for the last half a hour beforehand. I kept looking at the side of the road, with it feeling like I was missing something. This was the first time I had been on this road for as long I as could remember, so I did not know why it felt familiar or as peculiar as it did. Maybe it just reminded me of somewhere else.

I tried to start a conversation with Hex again, in order to get my mind off of that train of thought. "Can I ask you a honest question?"

"Sure, go ahead, I guess."

"What's up with you today? You've kinda been silent since we started biking, it's weird."

He was silent for a while, before he said, "You know, I changed my mind, the rain does hurt, can you return me to my poke ball?"

It was obvious he was feigning it hurting just to get out of the situation, but I did not see a reason to say no to his request, so I got out his poke ball and returned him to it. I would have to figure out later what his problem was, or why he was being overtly moody today. But in any case, the only thing I could do was keep looking forward, biking until I reached the eventual end this route had to have.

Whether that be today, or tomorrow, I would get to Mistralton City.

 _Snivy's POV_

"Hey Snivy, are you awake?"

My eyes widen at the presence of another pokemon, with me groggily turning my head and seeing it was Pansear. I had been in a state of half-awareness for the last few hours. I said, "I mean…?"

He took notice. "Ah, half awakeness, nice to know you weren't completely sleeping on the job."

I sighed, "Whatever." I pushed myself off up the ground, with the entire world juddering around in front of my eyes. "What do you want?"

"To take shift, of course."

"Even if I'm half awake, you know I don't buy that, right?"

He sighed and looked to the side. "Fine, the real reason I'm here is to have a little talk with you."

I stood up, with my body wanting to go back down, but my mind disagreeing. "What… what about?"

"About what we are going to do after we figure out where Riley is."

Of course that had to be what he wanted to talk about right now, right when I was half-awake and tired in the middle of the night. I looked towards him. "It's a bit late in the night to really talk about that isn't it?"

He leaned against the side of one of the buildings. "If you feel that way, fine, we'll talk about it in the morning. It's just I want to talk before we actually get the information from Emolga. Will you promise me that?"

"I can promise you that."

"Fine then, see you in the morning."

My mind wondered what he did want to talk about but I knew I needed to wait till morning to deal with such a thing. I started to walk towards the building, stumbling and almost falling many times along the way. I really needed to get this rest now. I pushed open the door and almost immediately collapsed in one of the corners of the room, with my only thought in mind being the fact that we were almost done with all of this.

Almost.

 _Riley's POV_

It was starting to look like it would be tomorrow when I got to Mistralton.

The rain had brought my biking progress to a halt, with the entire ground becoming muddy. I had regressed to pushing my bike along the side of the path, with it being the fastest method of getting through the route. In other words, the entire route had turned to mush.

It was going to be an annoying next few hours at the very least, but I would have to make do. I considered getting Hex out of his Poke Ball but then I realized that would only anger him and decided not to. So I just kept on pushing the bike along the road.

The next few hours were basically the same thing, me pushing the bike along the side of the road with nothing happening. I figured I would try to contact Linden since I had nothing better to do but I was instead greeted with a flashing No Reception signal. Defeated, I put it away in my bag and continued walking, hoping for this to be over with already.

That was when I noticed what looked like metal on the side of the road, covered in vines. I had continued looking to the side of the road ever since I started to have a weird feeling about this entire place, and while I believed it meant nothing, I had nothing better to do in the hard, cold, and muddy mess that was route 6 right now so I had continued periodically checking.

I started to wipe away the vines.

When I cleared them away, I saw my mother's car.

My dead mother's car.

 _Snivy's POV_

I opened my eyes to smoke.

Black, thick, choking smoke.

After my mind took a minute to comprehend the fact that there was smoke I quickly turned my head to the side in order to get my face as close to the ground as possible. My eyes scanned around the room, seeing that everything was ablaze and that it was quickly spreading, and also that Pansear was knocked out in one corner of the room.

My mind raced in panic as I quickly got out my vines and moved them across the room, attempting to wake Pansear up with them. When that did not work I immediately started crawling towards him hoping I could wake him up by shaking him

When I got close enough that I could touch him, I said while shaking him. "Pansear, wake up!"

"Wake up, wake up please!"

His eyes slowly opened. "W… what's happening?"

"We need to get out, now."

"Why, there is nothing wr-," his eyes widened, "How did I not see that a few moment ago, we need to get out."

I found it odd he did not immediately notice the smoke, but figured it was unimportant. "The door should be over here, follow me."

"Okay."

We both quickly got out of the building, slamming through the broken down door. When we got out I saw that…

I put my hand over my mouth. "Oh."

Pansear joined in. "Oh no."

The pole was empty, with Emolga being nowhere to be seen. But that was not the worse part.

The worst part was seeing my friend, Tyrunt, mangled and dead in front of the pole.

Both me and Pansear turned around and ran out of the town as fast as we could, leaving the burning ruins of a once standing ghost town to rot and burn in peace, forever.

Why?

Why did this have to happen right before I found him?

Why?

 _Riley's POV_

"No no no no no no no…"

I was quickly biking away from what I had just scene, crying on the way. The mud was not as bad as I thought it would be so I was able to bike as usual, if my mental state was better. I needed to get out. To get away.

I needed to get away before it all came back to haunt me.

My feet propelled the peddles of my bike to speeds I had not been able to go before, with the cable car station going over Chargestone cave into Mistralton coming into view the farther and farther I got away from car.

I kept on biking.

 _Snivy's POV_

We kept on running and running, turning our backs on the burning ghost town and whatever had happened to Tyrunt. It was more important that we get to safety and away from whatever had done this first and foremost, at least at the time. The morning sun accompanied our running, with it just being the brink of dawn.

When I figured we had gotten far enough away, I said,"We can stop here."

Pansear dropped his bag and turned to face me. "So, Tyrunt is just… gone now, isn't here." He was staring down at the ground, with him kicking around stones on the ground.

I put down my bag and walked towards him. "Look, du-"

He gave me a glare that made it clear he did not want to be spoken to right now, and I promptly shut it in response to it. He stood there for a while, while I got a few things of out the bag.

We both sat there for a while before he attempted to start up a conversation again. "I swear, everything was starting to look up and then this happens."

I sighed. "We can still recover from this you know."

The statement struck a nerve. "Do we want to recover and continue after something like that? Do we? Is it worth it?" He started to walk off, "Look, I just need to be alone right now."

"Fine then, come back when you want to figure out what in Arceus's name happened back at the town."

He kept on walking away in silence, either ignoring that I ever said anything or not having heard me. Either way, I knew he would be back so I was not worried. As I got everything out I started to think back to what had happened earlier, with my first question being who in the world could have possibly done this. I could not think of anyone, besides maybe that Pikachu but he could not possibly have organized something like this.

I eventually gave up. Me and Pansear would just have to focus on finding Emolga and getting all of this back on track. If we could find her.

If not, all of this would be for vain.

All of it.

 _Riley's POV_

"Welp, I'm here I guess."

After what felt like a eternity I arrived at the building, with the sun almost having completely set. I pushed the door open, with the guy at the front desk looking at me as if I had just done something crazy, which I presumed was coming in this late to take a cable car to Mistralton.

I walked up to him. "So, did I miss the last one or…"

He sighed. "No, no, we still have one going. I'm assuming you want to go on that one?"

"Yeah, that should be fine, how much?"

He looked down at his notepad and then looked back up. "Thirty poké dollars please."

Grumbling, I handed him the money, and then walked over to the waiting benches near the entrance to the cable cars. He looked at me. "It should be here within five minutes, it had some difficulties earlier today so it'll be slightly late."

"Figures," I sighed, "Whatever, I can wait."

He went back to doing whatever he was doing before I entered the building, and I just resorted to looking at the sky going by. To think at one point I was in that car with my mother, right before it happened. It was a sadistic thought, but a true one. My mind wandered to what happened the day of crash.

Outside raindrops were whizzing by as I watched from the car window. My mother was sitting in the front seats, driving along the route we were at. Both my sister and daddy were staying behind to finish packing according to my mother anyways, with it just being me and my mother in the car.

I saw a weird white pokemon and asked my mom. "Mommy, what is that white pokemon with a poke ball pattern on its head, it's weird!

She laughed. "Honey, that's just a Foongus."

"Foongus?"

"You'll have plenty of time to learn about them when we get to Driftveil sweetie."

"Okay, mommy."

We were travelling from Mistralton City, where I had lived my entire life, to Driftveil City. I did not know why or for what reason, other then what my dad had said in the living room a few days ago, something about bad job prospects, whatever that means. I had heard a lot about Driftveil, with it being the local big city in the area.

I looked up at my mother, who was busy driving through the heavy storm in the area. "Hey, how long until I can go outside and see our new home?"

She turned to face me. "Honey, we have a little while to go from here, please be patient."

"Okay, mommy."

I went back to looking at the passing by landscapes, bored out of my mind. We were on a back country road due to congestion on it, according to my mother. The rain was bouncing off the glass like pencils falling on the floor, and the entire sky was dark and cloudy. But then I saw a weird truck blocking the road ahead.

"Mommy, what is that."

Her demeanor changed. "Oh no."

The truck started moving towards us. "Mommy, you seem concerned, what is the matter?" She started crying in the front seat. "Mommy pleas-"

She turned to face me, "Son, I'm so, so, sorry."

"What momm-"

"Hey sir, your cable car has arrived!"

My mind snapped out of the memory instantly after hearing the person at the front desk's voice. It was the one and only time before today I had been on this route, and today was, at least I hoped, going to be the final time.

I got up and wheeled my bicycle into the cable cart. As the doors closed I turned around and gave the guy at the front desk on last glance before the cart started to move. I looked out the window and saw the station slowly getting smaller as the cart moved along. For a few minutes I just spent my time looking out at the landscapes slowly passing by around me through the windows.

After a while I saw Hex's poke ball randomly open, with Hex coming out. He must have used the whole skill he told me about earlier. "So, how was it in there?"

He stared down out the ground, confused as to where we were but not caring enough to ask. He said. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier, I just…"

"Apology accepted, just tell me why you were like that earlier."

He hesitated, "Fine," he started looking outside the window, "It has to do with some of the things you said in your sleep last night."

"What does that have to do with anything, it was just some weird dream…"

"It's not that, it's just… you reminded me of someone I once knew."

I was intrigued. "Who?"

"Look… it doesn't matter, I knew him a long time ago, and haven't been able to find him since, so let's just move on." He hung his shoulders in defeat.

I stood up. "Dude, are you sure? I can help you find him if you really want t-"

"No please, just trust me when I say you'll never find him, no matter how hard you look. Finding your sister is more important right now, please, let me help you with that."

I sat back down. "Okay then, sorry."

"It's fine… your only trying to help."

I looked out the window. "So… let guess why you didn't want to eat your food earlier… it was because the conversation I had with Linden reminded you of conversations you used to have with that friend you had?"

He looked up at me in confusion. "How did yo-"

"Once you know something, it's easy to piece together all the hints that it was that way all along."

"Hmph, fair enough."

Eventually everything went back to being silent, with my only company being Hex, who was sitting on the opposite set of chairs looking out the window, and the moonlight trickling into the side of the cart. I was laying on my back looking up at the ceiling of the cart, trying to fall asleep. The trip was going to take the whole night so I figured it was the best time to do so.

Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day, like I originally hoped today would be.

Hopefully.

 _?'s POV_

I had been waiting for a while when I saw what I thought was him walk into my view from the bushes. My gut instinct was to go for him immediately, but I decided to wait, with the fact that he was crying about something intriguing me.

He sat down near the river bank, with his head hunched over, and his hands in his eyes. "W… W… Why? Why? Why again?"

"Why? Can someone tell me why?"

He seemed to pull out something. "This is… it's just like when he disappeared 10 years ago, but unlike Tyrunt's case I don't know if he's dead…" He broke down into further sobbing, "Where are you…"

"Hex… where did you go… why… why did you leave me…"

I got bored of his little sob-fest very fast, and decided it was time to deal with him. I lunged at him from the bushes, with him turning around just fast enough for me to see one last face full of terror from him.

It was delicious.


	7. Bonus Chapter: The Good Old Times

…

* * *

 _Bonus Chapter: The Good Old Times_

* * *

I watched the landscapes go by as the tram cart went along it's journey in the midst of night. Usually, any normal trainer would have stuck me inside a poké ball against my best wishes, not knowing what I truly was, but Riley did not do that.

Of course, I knew he was hiding something, but I did not care at the moment. All I wanted to do was think back to the good old times right now.

The better times.

It all started one not so normal morning.

* * *

 _Hex's POV_

Trees?

Why do I see trees?

I woke up to a forest that had not been in when I fell asleep. My bed and my entire house had vanished with woods now in its place.

Knowing I was not going to go anywhere If I did not get up and figure out why in the world I was in the middle of nowhere, I pushed myself off the ground and then looked towards the river, which greeted me with a face that was not mine, but one belonging to a weird, white Charmander.

I started stumbling backwards before tripping on a rock. "Oh… okay then, the world must really have a thing against me today, first landing me in the middle of the woods and now the water showing me weird reflections, huh… well, I guess I just didn't get a good enough view in the water, let m-"

As I started to push myself up, I then saw that my chest had become white, as if it was made of bone, with this also being true for my arms and hands as I looked at them in disbelief.

"Okay world, I know you like to mess with me, but… why?"

Stumbling, I walked over and looked down at the river so I could see myself in full. My body looked as if it was a Charmander, but with a body composed of bone. I started shaking in fear of the ramifications of all of this.

"No, this… this is only something you see in old fables passed down in Kalos, this can't be real, it can't…"

I found myself back down on the ground, on my knees, sobbing into my hands.

"No, no, no, no, no…"

 _Pansear's POV_

"And stay out, you ungrateful runt!"

The door slammed on my face as I hesitantly grabbed my bag and started the long walk away from the place I had called home for the longest time. The only noise present as I walked away from the door with my bag was my father's laughing, presumably due to him celebrating getting rid of the 'nuisance' in the house. It was funny really, considering I was the only one who ever did anything productive in that household, but life has a way of having a demented sense of humor.

Blocking those thoughts out of my head, I kept on moving forward, figuring there was no point dwelling on the past. The forest was awfully quiet compared to how it usually was, a change from its usually overly lively mood. It was almost be serene, but not for me.

Not after today.

I kept on walking towards my hidden spot near the river, knowing I just needed to get all of this out of my mind at once before it blew up inside of me somewhere I did not want to. After a few more minutes of walking, I finally started to see it come into view.

"Why… why… why me."

The noise coming from what I had thought was my little secret area concerned me. The one place I could get away from everything had been violated, on the very day I desperately needed it. In a lot of ways, I was mad, but figuring it would be a bad idea to go into a situation lashing out on everything without knowing who was there, I walked into the area with my bag in my hand.

Instead of finding something you would usually expect to see in these woods, I instead found a weird Charmander with bone instead of skin. He was staring at the rivers currents, watching them go by as if that was all he could bring himself to do.

He did not notice I was there, so I figured I would make him notice. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

I saw him turn around, with his eyes widening before he shook his head. "Oh… sorry… I'll be off now."

He started to walk away with his head down before I said, "No, no, it's fine, I just wasn't aware of anyone else knowing of this place."

"Ye… yeah I… wasn't aware either of anyone knowing of this place either, my bad."

Deciding to keep the charade up, I sat down next to him. He went back to looking at the water, something I used to do here whenever I needed to calm down about something while I was here. Although he seemed different too, although I could not put my hand on what exactly. It intrigued me though.

Figuring I should beat around the bush first before trying to figure out why he was really here, I sat down next to him and said, "So, what name do you go by?"

"Oh uh… Hex.. yeah Hex."

Again, the statement reeked of being a lie, but I went along with it.

Figuring I should just cut to the chase, I said, "So, what was that whole repeatedly saying 'why' earlier about anyways?"

His face lifted in concern, as if that statement had struck a nerve of some kind. "How much did you hear?"

Figuring this was my chance to figure out who this kid was, I said, "Not much, but enough."

"E- Enough?" He had gotten up and was looking at me as if I have violated him somehow, "So… you know that I'm human?"

The second he said that sentence was the exact same second I knew I had gotten in way over my head.

 _Hex's POV_

He stood up. "So wait, your telling me you're a human trapped in the body of some pokémon? That's…"

I got up and instinctively started to back away. "Didn't you just say you overheard me?"

"You really have a lot to learn, don't you. Everyone isn't truthful about everything you know."

My body was instantly overcome with fear, with the world managing yet again to spit in my face. I tried to slowly back away from him, in a futile hope he would not notice.

"Hey, why are you leaving so soon Hex, if that's you real name?"

I stopped backing away. "You probably think I'm insane or something, so why should I stick around? Give me one good reason I should trust you."

After a few moments of silence, I turned back around and started walking away again, figuring the sooner I got away from him, the better.

"Because I don't actually think you're insane."

My body halted after I heard the statement. "Huh?"

"Look, it's obvious you're not really… that aware to how this world works if that makes any sense, and considering the fact that you kinda act like this is all new to you it really makes me think that you are being sincere about the whole being a human thing."

I turned around and saw him starting to approach me. "So, since I don't feel like leaving you to whatever catches you in the woods first and since I had plans to head over to town anyways, why don't you come with me to there? We can split paths after that if you really want."

Figuring the world had thrown everything it had at me already and that being stuck in the woods being hunted down by something could not be a much worse fate then whatever this Pansear could possibly want to do with me, I said, "Sure, I guess."

"Huh, I was expecting more resistance, but hey, that works too. Just follow me."

He walked towards and out of the enclave with his bag and I followed suite. I still did not trust him entirely, but he was the only option I had right now. Perhaps maybe I might even find answers as to what happened to me in town.

Who knows, anything could happen.

 _Pansear's POV_

I threw my arm out in front of Hex. "Stop, there is something ahead."

We had been walking for a while before I saw the entrance to a Mystery Dungeon we would need to pass in order to continue towards the town start to approach from the distance. Knowing the person I was travelling with was not the most knowledgeable about the world and thought he was human, I asked, "So, before we go any further, I need to know if you know what a Mystery Dungeon is?"

He stumbled backwards. "Uh… Mystery Dungeon?"

I sighed. "Okay, since you don't know what a Mystery Dungeon is, let me take it a step back. Do you know what a move is?"

He recomposed himself. "Yes, of course I do, what do you take me as, someone who doesn't

know anything?"

"Well I mean, every other time I have mentioned something basic you have seemingly been able to surprise me by not knowing it but what do I know," I said, as I started to lean against a tree in the area, "In any case, if you know so much about moves, do you know how to use them?"

The statement seemed to hit him like a brick wall, with it making him go completely silent after I said it.

Chuckling, I said, "So you don't know, mister I know all the basics, right?"

"Uh…"

"Figures," I said, while getting off the side of the tree and picking up a local rock, "Guess I'm gonna have to teach you then."

His eyes widened, "What do you mean by th-"

Before he knew it, several rocks that previously belonged to the forest floor found themselves being hauled at a very confused and panic-filled Charmander seemingly frozen in place. Well, frozen in place until one of them found themselves hitting his head, knocking him down and causing me to run towards him.

Bending down to face him, I asked, "Hey, are you alright? I was almost sure you would dodge those stones or manage to figure out how to use scratch or something to break them."

His eyes started to open, and his head turned to face mine. "Well… maybe don't assume I can expect random projectiles to be thrown my way at a moment's notice, my head would severely appreciate it."

I stood back as he managed to get himself off the ground after taking a stone to the head. The impact of the stone managed to make a few cracks around where it impacted.

Noticing me staring, he said, "There are cracks, aren't there."

"Yeah, yeah there are."

"Figures, knowing my luck." He got up off the ground, and started to feel around his head until he found them near his right eye socket. "Is this gonna heal or…"

"I mean, it's not like I've seen any ghost type Charmanders before so how would I know? Then again, if a small rock was able to do that much damage I would assume so though, otherwise your basically gonna be dead meat out there." Realizing how blunt I was before, I cleared my throat and said, "Does it hurt at all? I have some berries that can help if that is the case."

"Probably not as much as you would expect, but I'll take one anyways."

Sighing, I handed him one of the oran berries I had on me in my bag, and watch him look at it from multiple angles before he shoved it down his throat the second he had the chance to. His eyes widened as he attempted with his hands to feel around for the vanishing cracks on his forehead.

"How in the world did that manage to…"

Closing my eyes in slight annoyance, I said, "Is it yet another thing you do not know about?"

His eyes widened. "No, I do know about them, but I never knew how it felt to actually have one."

Sighing, I said, "Whatever then, I think it is about time we go back to helping you figure out how to use moves."

"Oh… that, yeah that probably would take precedence in this situation."

I turned around and found a few sticks around the local area, with Hex giving me confused glances until I turned around with a bundle of them heading back towards him.

Figuring I needed to start from the bare basics, I asked, "So, do you know what makes moves different from just attacking something?"

All I got back from him was a confused glance, prompting a sigh on my part. "I guess not. Whatever, I can make it work."

I bent down to grab one of the sticks off of the heap I had made on the ground. The purpose of this seemed to click in Hex's mind after I started to hold it up away from myself like a target.

"So, you know how in the move 'Scratch' the user swipes his claw at the opponent, correct?"

Looking at me as if I was babying him, he said, "Of course I do."

"Just making sure. In any case, in order to do the move, you don't just do that."

His eyes widened in confusion, with this seemingly being more new information for him.

"In order to properly preform the move, you're going to need to tap into your inner instinct."

"Huh, inner instinct? How am I supposed to do that? Isn't instinct involu-"

He shut up the second he saw my demeanor change in response to his questioning. It was starting to become very clear that this guy was not of this world and any doubts that I had about it had become nonexistent.

Sighing, I recomposed myself. "Okay, 'inner instinct' might have been a bad way to phrase it, especially if the legends of humans never being in the wild and living In groups of houses has any merit. Think about it more as your inner 'rage' if that makes any sense then."

"What would I have merit being mad at though."

It was a fair question in all honesty. "Uh… maybe the stones I threw at you earlier?"

"Oh… those."

I saw him close his eyes and start breathing in and out rapidly probably in a attempt to purposely make himself mad. Seeing this, I lifted up the branch again as the tips of his claws were covered with a white energy, the same energy I casually referred to as his 'inner instinct' that he then used to slash at the branch, easily cutting it in two.

Afterwards, I saw him open his eyes to the branch I was previously holding cut in two. He looked at me in disbelief before looking down at his own hands, his eyes widening as if this was something abnormal or unreal to him.

"So, uh, it's great that we know I can use them… but how do I control them without having to rely on rage or some other emotion?"

I slightly grinned. "Practice, lots and lots of practice."

"Figures…"

"I mean, if everything was easy in life, what would be the point of it all," I saw him growl under his breath in response to me saying that, "So anyways, now that you know how to do the most basic of moves, I guess I should tell you what a Mystery Dungeon is," I sighed, "Where to begin…"

Before I could completely compose myself he said, "What is so important that, after all of that, I need to know what one of these are right n-"

"Because one of them is right behind you."

He turned around and looked at the pathway further into the forest in fear, confused as to how the seemingly innocent pathway in the woods could conceal a monstrous place. "How is a place like this considered a dungeon? It doesn't have any concrete o-"

Confused as to what he was referring to, I asked, "What in the world do you mean when you say the word concrete? I have never heard of that term before."

He seemed to take a second to figure out how to explain it before saying, "You know, the material Conkeldurr are able to produce?"

"Oh… that," the fact that he had still came up with that term out of nowhere still confused me, but I carried on, "But… that isn't what that is called you know."

"What is it called then?"

I scratched behind my head, absolutely baffled about this entire topic. "Uh… unusually hard stone? Is there some major difference between it and stone that merits it having a different name?"

"Well… It can be made in a liquid form before drying and gains strength the longer it sits…"

Still absolutely baffled, I asked, "Where in the world did you hear this?"

"Oh, uh, well… it was often times used for construction where I come from, so it was often taught that Conkeldurr was where it came from."

The fact that he was able to honestly call up responses from nothing in mere moments was starting to scare me. Sure, maybe he could be lying to me, but this is quite a long time to pull of a charade for only feasibly a little more then a thousand poké worth of profits at maximum.

I could have pushed further and tried to figure out why he knew this, but I decided not to. Instead, I said, "Well… in any case, I guess I should tell you what a Mystery Dungeon is. This might take a while so you might want to get comfortable."

He sat down on the ground. "I'm all ears"

"Okay, so… where to begin," I sighed, "So, Mystery Dungeons are these weird places where the world fundamentally shifts in a way no one, at least to my knowledge, seems to understand. They start in seemingly random locations and shift the world around them, forming these weird labyrinths composed of hallways and small rooms with multiple floors, with these rooms and hallways containing rabid feral pokemon ready to attack you at any second."

"How and why would places like that ever come into existence?" He was seemingly surprised about yet another day to day thing. It honestly should not have even surprised me anymore yet it still managed to do so.

Figuring this conversation was going to go nowhere fast if I did not say anything, I said, "Good question. Unfortunately, no one, at least to my knowledge, knows. They just… kinda exist if you get what I mean."

He seemed to have calmed down from earlier. "So, have they just been sitting around in the same spot for all eternity or something, waiting for someone to go in and find whatever is in there?"

"I'm honestly not sure whether they stick around forever. Although, I do know new ones can form, because this one your standing in front of is one of those very new ones."

He turned to look at the pathway ahead again, seemingly unbelieving that a normal looking pathway could hide something akin to a death trap in his eyes at least. Eventually, he turned around and asked, "How long has it been around then if it's such a new one?"

"Oh, uh… 4/5 years? It has had barely any chance to grow."

I saw him breath out in slight relief. "Doesn't that mean it's not that tough?"

"Well, it's not that tough for me at least, I don't know whether that would be the same for you, with you just having learned how to use moves a few minutes ago."

The statement seemingly struck a nerve. "When will you stop shoving the fact I don't know anything about this world in my face anyways?"

I slightly chuckled. "When it stops being as funny as it is ."

The statement set him off. "That is a real Tauros' behind of a way to treat people you're with you know."

A smirked formed on my face. "Takes one to know one buddy."

"Hey!"

I got off of the tree I had been laying against over the course of the entire conversation. "You really need to learn to be able to take something like that if you want to survive a second in this world. I'll take it back, but really that should be nothing."

He still looked slightly ticked off at me. "Thanks, good old buddy o mine."

"Don't mention it."

Figuring now would be the best time, we rested for a while in front of the dungeon. I fiddled around with some things in the bag before I felt something stuck under something else. Curious as to what it possible could be, I got it out and saw a little wooden heart.

"What the? What in the…"

It then suddenly donned on me what in the world I was holding, and I quickly put it back away. I looked up to notice that Hex had at least noticed my outburst from across the pathway but went back to whatever he was doing, seemingly uncaring about it.

How had I, after only about a hour and a half, managed to already slightly forget?

Not wanting to be in these woods for any longer, I got up and started walking towards Hex. He noticed this and stood up in response, and asked, "So, I'm assuming you want to get a move on in going through the dungeon?"

"Precisely, why else would I have just spent all that time preparing you for it earlier?"

I heard him sigh. "Do I have a choice in the matter or…"

"I mean, there is always the option of staying in the woods if you wanted to be hunted down by something."

His eyes glanced down at the pathway behind us in a downtrodden way. "Fine, you lead the way, my 'hero'."

Slightly chuckling, I said, "I think I will."

Considering I had went past this dungeon many times in order to get to town, I had no doubts about my safety. What I was more concerned about was whether I would be able to handle myself and keep Hex safe at the same time. It would have been so easy to just leave him out in the woods yet here I was transporting him to the town, but I could not bring myself to do it.

He gave me his trust, and I was not about to break it.

Before I fully committed and took the final step into the dungeon, I took one last look back at the pathway behind me.

I felt Hex's hand on my shoulder. "Hey, are you okay? You seem to be thinking about something."

Sighing, I said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about."

He was unconvinced. "Whatever you say, just know you don't need to hide behind a wall about everything."

Shaking what I was previously thinking about out of my mind, I said, "Yeah, yeah, I know."

I faced back towards the pathway in front of me. It was time to move on from all of this.

As I took the first step, I ended one chapter of my life, and started another.

A chapter that, I at least hoped, was going to be much better then the last.

I hoped.

 _Hex's POV_

 _Grotto Woods, S1_

Nothing Pansear could have told me could have prepared me for this.

The long, unnatural hallways that span into nothingness.

The weird rectangular rooms scattered throughout the place.

The entire place felt unreal.

My eyes widened at the absurdity of it all. "You weren't kidding…"

Pansear turned around to face me, his arms crossed. "Look, just follow my lead. These places have a way of separating groups whenever they have a chance so it would be better you not stray off."

I shook my head and we started walking. If there was one thing I could agree with him on, it was the fact that I did not want to be in this place longer then necessary.

We walked for a while, before I said, "So... you seem like you have been here before, may I ask how many times?"

He slightly chuckled. "Oh, I've been here countless times. It's the only way to get to the town in a timely matter. Although… this is the first time I have been here with someone who didn't know a thing about dungeons so there is that."

"Hey, when are you going to drop that? It's not like I had a choice or anything…"

"And it is not like I had a choice in finding some random undead Charmander in my secret spot so…"

"You know, I really hate you sometimes."

A small grin formed on his face. "Thanks."

That was when I heard ruffling in the bushes next to me. Before I could do anything, I found myself face first with a Poochyena jumping at me from the bushes. All my muscles froze up and I closed my eyes anticipating it to be all over in seconds.

When I did not feel anything attacking me after a few seconds, I was confused to say the least. I opened my eyes to find a knocked out Poochyena and Pansear miffed standing over it.

He redirected his annoyance towards me. "Did I just see you actively accept your death the second you got attacked by something?"

"Uh," I backed away attempting to get away from Pansear's anger, "Maybe?"

He tried to cover his face with his hand. "You're hopeless. Utterly hopeless."

I saw him start to walk away, and I attempted to jog after him, saying, "But I ju-"

"Don't give me excuses. Excuses just justify mistakes like that in your mind."

My eyes widened as he turned around to face me. Whatever I had done, it have obviously struck a nerve I did not know he had or cared about. What was he about to do?

"Come over here, let me tell you a story while we find the exit to this place."

Hesitantly, I trudged my way towards him. Once I got over to where he was, he picked up his bag he had dropped while fighting the Poochyena that attacked me and started talking while I followed.

"Let me tell you a story about someone I once knew. Someone you probably never want to find involved in your life yet I did. This… person, if you can even call him that, was know for his hardship in life."

"Hardship, like… having trouble with certain things or going through bad times?"

He slightly grinned. "Precisely. He found himself constantly in the worse of situations and would often blame the world for them. When things went bad, he did nothing to try to fix it, just swearing to the world from his seat in the main room."

I did not like where this was going but I stayed silent.

He started to walk towards me. "When they eventually found themselves in a situation where they could not sustain themselves, guess what he did? He blamed the family, and not himself. He acted like them existing was the issue and that he could never be the source of all these problems by doing nothing."

"Uh…"

"But wait!" he said, as he stepped in front of my path, blocking me from moving further,"You say, thinking you know everything. That situation totally can't go on forever, can it? It has to end at some point, right?"

He started laughing as he dropped his bag and found himself just inches away from me. "Well, I say in response, you might be right about that. But it can sure go on for quite a while though, long enough to the point where you find your sister at the edge of the local river _ready to take a dip."_

My eyes started to widen in pure terror as his grin towered over me more and more.

" _But who got blamed? Who was the excuse?_ _Who did he blame for his family's hardship this time?_ _"_

I tried to back up but found myself on the ground after slipping on a rock, with his face towering over me.

His grin vanished and his eyes closed. "Me, the one who found her, of course."

It all clicked.

He stood back up and and saw his earlier creepiness dissolve back into his normal attitude. He offered me his hand in order to pull me back up which I gladly accepted. I could hear him sigh as he said, "Excuses allow you to pin everything that you do wrong on others, and make them feel like trash. Any fault you make, belongs to you and no one else. Remember that next time you blame someone else when you did something wrong."

I saw him start to walk away leaving me still in shock after the whole ordeal. I asked him while quickly rushing back towards him, "How long ago did this happen to you?"

"My entire life up until about a hour or two ago, when he finally kicked me out."

My body froze. "Really, why would h-"

He sighed. "Being honest, I blame myself more then anything for not getting away sooner, but hey, to each his own. I would rather not dwell on it lest it become a obsession like it did for my father when it came to hardship. So can we please just drop it?"

Figuring there was no point in continuing the topic of discussion I nodded in agreement and we continued to walk through the dungeon for a while. After a few more minutes. Eventually, I found myself standing in front of a massive gateway that lead into what looked like shadows.

My eyes shifted towards Pansear on the right. "So, this is the way to the next section of the dungeon, right?"

"Yeah it is. Just follow me."

Before I knew it he disappeared into the darkness present at the gateway, leaving me there. I walked in after him, fearing the dungeon gate disappearing or something weird happening, which seemed highly likely considering the nature of these types of places.

All that was on my mind was getting out of this place, and then I would worry about what I was going to do afterwards.

That was all I could do.

 _Pansear's POV_

 _Grotto Woods, S3_

I was still wondering what I had gotten myself into as I walked on to the third and final floor.

First I meet this guy, claiming he was a human at point and then either acting perfectly or actually being truthful about it, with both options scaring me in different ways. Then out of pity I let him come with me to the town because I did not feel like leaving him in the woods to perish by something, but not before I then somehow manage to slip up and then scream out everything that had been troubling for the last few days, only for him to stay there for some reason and not run away like almost everyone else would.

"So, why didn't you run off earlier after I went all at you?"

Hex turned his head to face me. "Run off about what, the whole 'your father' thing?"

I cringed after hearing him referring to it casually like that, but then said, "Yeah, that."

"What am I, just gonna run off or something just because someone is randomly angry about something?"

Slight laughter came from my mouth. "You talk like that isn't normal."

"Is it? Because you didn't do it."

I walked past him. "Just because I did something doesn't mean it's normal, you know." I hoped that would be enough to make him give up.

It was not. "Why Is it not then, tell me."

Noticing his obliviousness to the situation, I said, "You know my father is not really a lone case, while they are all not parents, this world isn't in the greatest state. That hardship I mentioned earlier was, at least near the beginning, actually brought about by others."

He was blunt. "You talk like that is perfectly fine and is acceptable behavior."

"You act like I can do more about it," I chuckled at the innocence of his argument, "I saved you, didn't I? That isn't something most would do, with them instead prying off your situation to get something or just plain walking off."

I saw him start to say something but then close his mouth and shake his head in anger towards something. He then said, "Didn't you just answer your own question? I not like the majority of people already for reasons I hope you don't need me to repeat."

Sighing, I waved the white flag and relegated back to just carrying the supply bag in peace, but it did not stop me feeling bad for him. It seemed like he thought he could save the world by being a one man army. Like he truly believed he could stop all the bad things that had been happening for the last few decades.

There was always the option of telling him about the guild, but I was not sure he would be happy to hear about what had happened to them.

I shook the thought out of my head, and kept on walking until we finally found the gateway and stepped through it. All I knew going through it was that Hex would be in for a world of surprise when he saw how the world truly was.

A real world of surprise.

 _Hex's POV_

"Welcome to sweet old Aurora Town." I heard Pansear sarcastically remark as I walked out the exit of the dungeon

My face was immediately greeted by what Pansear was describing as a 'town'. I would have opted for the term small village more due to the fact that all it had were 20 building, with a few of them not even looking occupied at all.

Of course, he noticed this disappointment. "Not the biggest thing in the world compared to some of the stuff your world probably had, huh."

"How did you…"

He slightly chuckled. "Your face is like a giant book sometimes. I could just see."

"Of course your able to do that, of course." I sarcastically remarked.

After a few moments of silence I looked back towards the town; its small size making me lose any hopes I had that life here would be any similar to life back home vanish. I looked down at myself, still finding it surreal that my life had made a full 360 in such a short amount of time. Back when I was human, I used to be the guy who was always scared of being around pokémon due to the fact that they were capable of burning you alive, stealing your soul, impaling you with spikes made of ice, etc.

Yet here I was, in a world controlled not by humans with these creatures under them, but by the creatures themselves. It was controlled by the same creatures that could hide in the walls, or manipulate you with your mind, the same things that would have scared me half to death only a half of a day prior. Yet, despite everything my former self 12 hours ago would have predicted if I knew this would happen, I did not feel fear.

I had every right to feel fear, with the existence of these Mystery Dungeons and the sorry state of the world Pansear described it being in giving merit to it, but I did not feel fear. It was odd, considering I had felt it my entire life yet I did not feel it right now at least. Maybe it was because I was one right now, or because I could talk to them.

Maybe the whole reason I came here in the first place was to get over that fear, and to realize that. That maybe there was another side to everything.

"Hey, can I ask you to do something?"

The question had seemingly came out of nowhere, interrupting my chain of thought. I blankly said, "Yeah, what is it."

He looked towards the beach, seemingly hesitating before saying, "I want you to follow me for a second."

"O… kay? Sure I guess."

We both walked towards the beach; me still being unsure as to the purpose of all of this yet not wanting to really question his motives at the moment. But I was not the one to go biting the hand that feeds you, so I went along with it. Besides, he had helped me in the forest, I at least owed him this much.

Once we found ourselves in a part of the beach with no one around, I asked, "So, why did you bring me here?"

He hesitated for a moment, as to compose himself, before saying, "Do you remember that whole

rant you did on how the world's state was unacceptable."

"Uh," my hand started scratching behind my head in nervousness as to where this was going, "Yeah, what about it? You acted as if you did not care or something."

"I acted like I didn't care because at the time I wasn't sure, but then I realized something, that you had potential."

"What do you mean by 'potential'?"

I heard him sigh. "I can show you what I mean, but you are going to have to promise you won't speak of it to anyone."

"Okay then… go ahead, I won't tell a soul."

He walked towards the trees and knocked on them, before I saw what looked like a hatch open and I started to walk backwards as to not be seen by whoever he was talking with. I was still able to hear what they were saying though.

The hatch guy seemed oddly pessimistic about seeing Pansear. "Oh, hi Pansear, didn't expect to see your face for quite a while after you said you had some 'things to take care of' before. How did they go?"

"The worst they possibly could, But that isn't why I came here."

"Oh uh, sorry to hear that, but what was the real reason you came here?"

Pansear, much to my displeasure, motioned me to come over which I begrudgingly did. I had no idea what he was bringing me to and I was starting to fear that it was not the greatest of places based on how secretive he had been about it. The pokémon he had been talking to, who turned out to be a Makuhita, eyes widened in shock as he saw me.

He climbed the rest of the ladder underneath him and lodged a rock in the panel. He redirected his attention back to Pansear, with him dropping his earlier attitude, "Okay, I know you have some weird friends Pansear, but thi-"

The statement ticked me off. "Hey I didn't ch-"

Pansear gave me a glare that immediately made me stop talking, before he said, "Sorry, he has a thing with getting called weird, due to the fact that, you know, you don't really see a ghost type Charmander running around every day."

I contemplated saying you did not really see a human stuck in a pokémon's body every day too but I guarded my tongue, knowing it would be a bad idea to say it to anyone else considering how long it took for Pansear to accept it as truth.

After what felt like a eternity I heard the Makuhita sigh. "Well… this Is great and all but why did you bring him here, it's not like we are actively categorizing pokémon or something."

"I brought him here because I thought he might be interested in joining."

My eyes widened at the fact that this was all happening without me saying anything. I contemplated saying something in protest, like 'I never said I wanted to do this,' but I did not, instead standing there watching the scene unfold before my eyes. That did not mean I accepted it though.

The Makuhita seemed to notice my hesitance and said, "I'm not sure if he even wants this, Pansear…"

Pansear sighed. "He wouldn't be if you just let me mention this place outside of it, but I can't so I just have to bring him here not knowing anything."

I heard the Makuhita sigh. "Fine then, let's get inside."

The Makuhita lifted up the hatch and move the rock out of the way before climbing down. Pansear gestured me to go next which, with hesitance, I did, climbing down and looking up at the last bits of sunlight I would see for a while getting shut off as Pansear closed off the hatch from on the ladder.

I was now stuck and unable to get away if I wanted or needed to, and I was not sure how I felt about that.

 _Pansear's POV_

"So, welcome to one of the last guilds in existence." I heard Makuhita say to Hex as I cleared the last few steps of the staircase.

"Guilds?"

Makuhita looked like he was about to say something I knew he was going to regret so I stepped in front of him and said, "So, Hex, remember what you said about the world's current state was unacceptable?"

He was taken aback but then said, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, they were places dedicated towards that cause, or at least were, unti-"

Makuhita then interrupted me, saying, "Until most of the criminal underworld decided to unite in order to end their main source of resistance, the guilds, by actively attacking them."

I saw Hex's eyes widen in response to this. "When did this happen?"

"Uh… I'm surprised you do not know, but I can say it," I sighed at the fact that Hex had again shown his lack of knowledge about the world, with me receiving a glare from him in return, "It started slow, around… 20 years ago until it sped up rapidly and caused the destruction of most of them by around 10 to 5 years ago. This town's old one was a outlier, lasting until 4 years ago, before being attacked and causing us to run into the woods, where we formed this as a replacement, with it standing as one of the only ones left."

"And here we have Makuhita, with his history lessons, as always." I sarcastically remarked as I laid against the side of one of the walls, watching the entire conversation go down.

Makuhita faced towards me. "Hey don't give me that, if I weren't here you wouldn't be in this building right now."

"Look, can we get back to the main topic of if your going to let Hex in?"

His eyes shifted back from me to Hex. "Oh right. So, who's team is he gonna be a part of, since I still need to record that and such."

"Oh yeah," I sighed, "Why can't he just join the unofficial team I have with Tyrunt?"

"Because that is a disgrace to guild tradition and this is the perfect chance to make it stop existing."

I sighed. "Tradition, tradition, tradition, it's always the past with you, isn't it."

"Hmph, the guild rise was based on the actions of two pokémon 100 years ago, from the first one in treasure town. I don't think we should disrespect our heritage just because times look dire."

"Like that stopped it falling a few years back," I was getting tired of this, so I gave in. "But whatever, I'll form a team under the name Team Fury with me, Tyrunt, and Hex as its members. My schedule opened up anyways so I can actually be here every day now."

Makuhita stared at me in disbelief for a while, as if he never expected me to finally give in and form a team, but here I was defying someone's expectations for the second time today. He eventually said, "Fine then, I'll go get the necessary preparations for everything, in the meantime, I would prefer you explain how everything works here to Hex so we can save time."

Me and Hex watched as Makuhita walked out of the room, full of anger towards my lax attitude towards how the old guilds that I had never been a part of worked. Once he was out, I said to Hex, "Okay, so, there are some core rules of this place you need to know before I go any further."

I heard Hex sigh, "Throw 'em at me."

"Okay, rule one: you do not speak of this place outside of this place."

"Pretty sure I got that from your guy's whole thing over the top secrecy thing outside but thanks for confirming that I guess."

I could hear Makuhita snickering all the way from over here at the blatant remarks coming from Hex but I disregarded it.

"Rule two: you never let anybody into this place without going through the door handler, who is currently the Makuhita you just met that doesn't accept the past as it is, the past."

Makuhita quickly turned around from his desk, "BUT IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THE PA-"

"Moving right along, and ignoring Makuhita's outburst, rule three: never go for prolonged amounts of time without doing a mission."

"Unless, you know, you're mister break the system by not technically being part of a team over here." Makuhita snickered at me from his desk.

"And there he goes again, with his snarky comments towards me," I redirected my attention from Hex to down the hall, "Hey, if your so talkative, how is that paperwork coming along?"

He promptly got off of his chair and started walking towards me. "Done, I already had it half filled out and only needed to add Hex's name to some parts, your now an official team, although technically we would have to put it through the leadership first…"

"The leadership that died along with the guild? Yeah, go get them, I'd love to speak to them in Giratina's realm, that would be great."

He visibly held back a scream. "You know, I sometimes think that maybe you're Giratina's way of making up for me not dying to that Unfezant one time."

"At least I, a non guild member at the time, saved you from that thing your teammates just ran away screaming from."

He stared at me blankly for a moment, and then he snapped out, "Whatever, I have a door to handle and papers to manage, your room for both Hex and you is 3-02."

And like that, the fighting type was gone, leaving me and Hex standing in the main lobby. I turned around and started heading towards the room, with him follow suite behind me. I had a lot to catch up on, but that could wait until later.

First, I had to get everything packed away in the room.

 _Hex's POV_

"What was all that about?"

We had walked from the main lobby of the guild to our room. It was not the roomiest thing in the world, but it was big enough, with it having enough space for some items and containing two small beds made out of hay, what I guessed was the average from around here.

That was not my main concern at the moment though, with that going to the whole interaction that had occurred between Pansear and Makuhita. Pansear said, "Oh that, well, you see, both me and Makuhita have a history so to speak."

I glared at him. "What kind of history, like… do you guys hate each other or something?"

"Oh, if he truly hated me, I wouldn't be here right now, trust me," he put down his bag near the entrance before sitting down, "We have more of a love hate relationship if anything."

"Ah, I… I see," I said, not really getting it, but presuming it would make sense in time.

We both got situated, with Pansear storing some of the items away in the box in the corner of the room as I took a second to get a grasp on the layout of the room. After he was done putting away the items, I asked him, "So… was this your entire end goal this entire time, to get me in here?"

He sighed. "Being honest, it wasn't. You just didn't seem like the type at first."

"Then why did you drag me into this?"

"Hmph, figures you wouldn't like it, I guess you weren't squirming for a reason in that lobby," Pansear closed the chest and then got up from the ground, "If you really want to go, just… go tell my best bud Makuhita over there you changed your mind and you can head out."

"If that is what you want of course, I'm not forcing you or anything."

Sighing, I sat down on the bed and said, "No, just… honestly would have preferred you told me about it beforehand or whatever."

"Whatever then, suite yourself," he went down to pick up the bag, "Now, if you excuse me, I have to go somewhere."

"But didn't you just get here? What could be so urgent that you have to go right this second."

"It's not that major, but I have to go tell Tyrunt about the fact we are a official team now, he lives outside of the guild due to his uhm… size so I'm gonna have to go all the way over to ye yonder in order to tell him."

"So what, you just made that decision without asking him."

He stopped mid-step. "I mean, he has been bugging me to form this for the longest time so I don't know in what world he would say no to this."

"Fine then, but before you leave, can I know when your are going to be back?"

"Probably not till tomorrow, considering the fact I don't want to deal with Makuhita late at night. You should probably get some of that precious rest you told me about earlier."

"Hey!"

Pansear walked out the door, chuckling to himself, as I found myself in a room alone for the first time since the beginning of the day. For as much as I disliked going along with a statement meant to anger me, my body could not resist falling asleep the second I found myself laying down.

Today had been a long day, and I did not need it to be longer. I would figure out everything tomorrow, after I had rest.

Tomorrow.

I closed my eyes for the first time that day and managed to slip into a oddly serene rest.

* * *

I found myself back on the tram cart, still staring out its window. As much as Pansear teased me, I never really hated him, nor wished for them to go away.

I just wished I had more time, before I found myself here, without my original body.

My entire life stolen away from me again, only to be placed back not in my original human body but the one of a creature that I looked down at as a animal as a kid.

Maybe it was the world's cruel twisted way of trying to be metaphorical. If it was, it was disgusting.

But I did not cry or anything, nor did I get depressed. I had been way past the point of depression for a while, having just accepted that there was no such thing as continuity in life. That if you come to accept something as everlasting, it will be torn away.

Change has and always will be a constant in life, and if you do not accept it, it will tear you apart. No matter how much you deny it, it was a cold, hard, fact.

That was why I always was sarcastic, because life in inherently something to be made fun of. It is the only way to handle it.

I found myself laying back down, staring at the wall in silence. Maybe one day I would see him again, but I doubted it.

And even if I did, it would not be like the good old times. That was for certain.

Nothing would ever be like the good old times.


	8. Chapter 6: Gone

…

* * *

 _Chapter 6: Gone_

 _Spark_ _'s POV_

For the first time in weeks, I woke up to no nightmares. All I woke up to was the wooden roof Conkeldurr made for me so long ago staring back at me from above. The room was almost serene, inviting me to sit around and forget about what I wanted to do today.

But I knew I needed to go so I got up, sighing at the sight of Riley's empty bed. I could have just removed it, and gotten the constant reminder that I was one of the few people who still had memories of Riley out. The memories I was not supposed to even have in the first place, yet I decided to retain by chasing that stupid Snivy with that stupid photo.

The memories that stupid, stupid me decided to chase after fervently, causing all of this to happen.

Despite all of this, I could not bring myself to actually throw out the bed that used to belong to Riley; instead opting to leave it there to silently rot away as I went on my trip today. The sun was starting to rise out of the sky, signifying that I had awoken at the right time for once.

The time I would go fix this entire mess I had gotten so many people in Post Town involved with that should have never happened. Me, along with Dunsparce, who I could not leave behind after seeing what had happened to him mentally last night, would go fix all of this.

Or be captured together, depending on how it went.

Sighing, I started walking towards where he lived in the Paradise; the house near the edge of the entire place. Both he and Emolga lived in a house I had asked Conkeldurr to build for them after they decided to stick around. Thinking back, I am not even sure Riley ever went to go see it, oddly enough.

But that was not what mattered right now. What mattered was that I needed to fix my mistakes. I needed to find Emolga. I needed to stop Dunsparce going through what I had went through the days after Riley left.

I needed to stop this seeming unending cycle that had been occurring for the past few days.

As I approached the house I noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Unlike my house, they had gotten a door due to fears of something coming in at the middle of the night due to the place being a fair bit away from the Paradise, far enough where you could find wild pokémon still roaming. I waltzed in and looked around trying to see if he was anywhere to be seen.

When he found he was not, I said, "Hey, Dunsparce, you there? We have to get going, every second we wait is another second they can get further away you know." I thought maybe he was just hiding not wanting to be spotted prematurely by someone since I said I wanted us to go alone.

But all I received in return for the shout was silence. Silence that was scarier then any sound you could ever hear. Silence that showed you were all alone.

Of course he would disappear right before we left. Of course everything would go wrong at the last moment and make it impossible to ever find Emolga. Of course this all happens right now.

Of course everything I ever built up collapses right in front of my face like it did all that time ag-

"Oh… I… I didn't know you were here already." I heard him say behind me.

I turned around to be greeted with Dunsparce standing at the doorway, having returned from what I could only presume was a quick walk outside or something of the sort. Sighing, I said, "Oh, sorry, I was worried for a second that you…" I sighed,"Look, it has been a long week, my mind is everywhere, I was just worried."

Worried was a understatement and a half, but in reality, I did not think he needed to know how I really felt for those last few seconds before he showed up. I did not think anybody needed to know.

I saw him waddle into the building, before saying, "Yeah… it… it has been the same for me too."

He took some time to get his stuff he needed for the trip, mostly composing of a small bag he had full of stuff. After a while, I asked him, "So, are you ready?"

"Ye… yeah, I guess…"

"Fine then, I don't see a point in really letting them get another foot ahead of us, so let's go."

Both me and him started walking towards our destination, the southern pathway. We were more then likely going to have to go through that water dungeon again, but I did not care about that at the moment.

What I cared about was maintaining this face everyone knew me by and not have another freak out session like I almost had in Dunsparce's house. Ever since Riley left, I had thought I was constantly going to break down since he was the only one keeping me afloat for a long time. Fortunately, the constant unfortunate situation has given me a excuse for some of my behavior recently, so they still think I'm the same person I was around Riley just going through bad times.

But what would happen when I did not have that excuse anymore? When the facade was finally revealed for what is was, a facade?

What was gonna happen?

 _Snivy's POV_

Deep inside, I was starting to realize he was not coming back.

I had been waiting in the forest for what felt like hours at this point, watching the leaves go by and thinking about the past few weeks. Usually when I gave him a hour he would be back, yet here he was, nowhere to be found at the camp. I guess he was serious this time about being done with it all, and actually walked away for good.

In a effort to try to find him, despite how much I knew he hated me interrupting his business, I walked towards the passage he had went down to only be greeted with foliage. Green, leafy, encompassing foliage.

Foliage that only seemed to be there to taunt me. Foliage I knew Pansear hated walking in due to the sheer difficulty it was to walk through it. Foliage I knew I would not be able to find him in.

Foliage that I swear was not there before yet was standing right in front of me.

Sighing in defeat, I started walking towards the main pathway to Scarlet City. If he did not care and wanted to go wallow in his misery, that was his concern. But I could not afford myself the luxury of doing something like that right now. I needed to find Emolga, otherwise this would all be for naught. She was our one lead, our one surefire piece of information that would have lead us to him and maybe even Hex.

Until something or someone set the entire place on fire of course.

Someone who might be still there.

My body slightly shuddered at the thought that this was a ambush of some sort, but if it truly was, then what did I have to lose at this point. This all would have been much better had Pansear just stayed around, but he did not. He ran off, and was now probably crying in the woods somewhere, blaming himself for Tyrunt's death like he did for everything that went wrong in the group, under the mentality that he had no excuse to let it happen. I knew it was a unhealthy mentality for him to have, especially in a situation like this, but I was not one to tell someone off for how they lived their life.

My chain of thought was interrupted when I felt a branch snap underneath my foot. I found myself back on the pathway leading to the town I would have preferred not to go into alone, but was forced to due to the fact that the longer I waited the further that Emolga could be. She was probably already long gone, heading back towards Post Town, but there was always the chance.

The chance she was still somehow there. The chance all of this could be alright again. There was always the chance.

It was a chance I had to take.

The now half burnt gateway still stood up as I walked into the town, seeing the damage that last night's fire had caused. Oddly enough, Tyrunt was missing from the pile of rubble that had been created from the fire. Unlike his probably burnt body however, the buildings were somehow still standing, acting as extremely effective hiding spots for anybody who was still around after last night.

Sighing, I began to look through each one of them, in a hope that maybe I would be able to find Emolga hiding or collapsed in one of these buildings. It was a small hope, but large enough to the point where I could not ignore it.

So I searched, with my mind constantly finding itself back on the subject of Pansear's whereabouts despite me having no way to figure them out. There was always the chance I might find answers I desperately needed here.

There was always the chance.

 _Spark's POV_

It was a surreal feeling, being back at a place I had not been at in months nor ever truly planned on being back at again. The landscape around me stretched on for what felt like miles, encompassing the entire surrounding area except for the forest behind me. Knowing this was getting to the edge of where my old northern map showed, I put it away and got out the one I had gotten yesterday from Kecleon.

I looked at the map and located Forest Grotto near the north-eastern part of the map, having just spent hours walking through what was represented as a tiny little area. Based off the pathway, it looked like we needed to continue going south from where we were and then eventually reach a crossroad that split off to go towards Scarlet City. Mentally sighing at the large distance, I put away the map and started walking again, under the hope we could get there as fast as possible.

Dunsparce, after noticing I had started to walk again, asked, "Oh, did… did you find where… where we needed to go?"

"Of cou-," I stopped myself mid-sentence, dropping my earlier stern tone, "Yeah, I did, it wasn't that hard to find."

Of course I almost snapped at him. Of course I keep on slipping up. Of course life spits on me when I am down. Of course this all happens to me and not that Snivy that abducted Lillipup who is probably having a grand old time doing whatever she pleases to Emolga.

I shook the thoughts out of my head and attempted to fix the situation I got myself into. "Uh, long week, just… please, disregard me."

He still seemed a bit freaked out by my sudden outburst but at least stopped acting freaked out by it, thankfully enough. That did not mean it was all good, however, with it being another time I accidentally broke the persona I had been holding up for months, causing more cracks in it to form. To further break the lie that I had been keeping up for the last few months.

The lie everybody in Paradise believed. The lie I wished was not a lie yet was. The lie that I needed to desperately stay a lie, yet was starting to unravel more and more every passing day. The lie I feared everyone would hate me for after they discovered what it exactly was covering up.

The lie that had defined me for my entire time in Post Town.

Attempting to get the thought out of my mind, I said, "So, how have you been?"

"Uh…" he was taken aback, "I… I think you… you know. How… how about you?"

"I'm… fine." I said with a small fake grin.

He stopped walking. "Your fine? After… after all of this… your fine?"

Of course I had to say I was fine, and not something else that Dunsparce would not hitch on to. I tried to think of a idea as to what to say and then had a idea that I thought might work.

Plastering a small fake grin on my face, I said, "Well I mean, Riley would not want me to be down right now, would he? The same could be said about Emolga, she would hate to see you like this, wouldn't she?"

I hated having to use Riley's name in vain but in this case I deemed it necessary. If I did not say anything fast, my facade would crack even further, and Dunsparce would start to realize I was not mister peppy peppy happy all the time. He would realize what I truly was.

And I could not have anybody knowing that, otherwise I would have to leave behind Post Town forever. No one could know.

No one at all.

Dunsparce seemed conflicted about what I said. On one end, it probably made sense to him. But on the other, he was probably in self denial and was not going to accept it anytime soon. I could have just said that maybe I was wrong and brought him out of it, but that would be me speaking, not my facade. And he did not care what I said, he cared about what my facade said, since that was his friend. I was just a outsider in all of this, playing the part of the person who everyone was friends with; a actor in a world of non-actors.

To him, I never have ever even existed.

"No she… she wouldn't… she would understand… that… that tragedy can't…" I heard him say in self-denial behind me.

My mind was instantly brought out of my internal rant to be greeted with Dunsparce not accepting what my persona had claimed to be the truth. I was hoping it was going to work, and that this situation I had gotten myself into would be resolved without my persona having to say another word about it, but that obviously did not happen. So I was stuck there having to quickly think up another thing for my persona to say.

Eventually, I came up with a idea I knew I would hate saying, but I did not see any way around it. Knowing every second I waited was another moment that made me seem more suspicious, I internally sighed and said, "I mean… that was what she told me when we whispered to each other before the Snivy fight, where she told me Riley would not want want to see me in the state I was in."

I hated every moment my mouth was saying a word in that sentence, but it was finally done. Dunsparce seemingly put his head down in disbelief or just pure melancholy. In actual concern this time, I said, "Hey, is something wrong?"

He acted like he did not hear me. I was about to walk towards him to see if he was fine but then I heard him start speaking under his breath.

"She… she always… told me to… to never box… box up emotions like little… little monsters. She… she said that's… that's why her… her brother…"

"That's why her… brother… why he… why he…"

"Why he…"

After it dawned on me what I had truly accomplished, my mind was filled with harrowing, clawing regret, regret I had to keep hidden behind my mask, my facade.

"She… she…"

"Dunsparce, is there a issue or…"

"No… I'm… I'm fine, I just… just need to… to think, that's all."

Hating myself, and everything I had said a few moments prior, I slowly started to walk forward again; Dunsparce trudging along in silence behind me. I occasionally glanced back at him to see him looking down constantly almost in tears.

I knew I could end all those negative emotions he was feeling right now if I only told him the truth, that I lied. All it would take was one measly sentence, one small, tiny sentence.

Yet I knew if I said it, all that anger towards either himself or Emolga or both would be redirected at me the second I said the sentence. As much as I wanted to say it, I knew if I did, the friendship he had developed with my facade over the last few months would be broken instantly. So, for as much as I hated doing it, I walked along, holding my facade closer and tighter then before, hating myself and hating everything that I have had done the prior week more and more with every step.

All I could do was tighten my facade and pretend like everything was okay.

Just keep on pretending.

 _Snivy's POV_

All of this could not be happening.

Right in front of my eyes, I had witnessed everything I had worked towards over the last few weeks collapse within a day. Tyrunt was killed by something that was able to overwhelm him, presumably the same thing that set the city on fire and caused me and Pansear to run out. Pansear ran off to go blame himself for all of the stuff that had occurred. Leaving me alone to try to fix all of this and find where Emolga had run off to.

Needless to say, this situation was unfix-able, with Emolga being nowhere to be found within the city nor Pansear anywhere to be found either. All I could manage to bring myself to do was walk in the town, staring at the damage from the fire last night. This once grand city turned ghost town had burned up completely within a night, completely erasing it from existence. Just like everything else I had worked towards for weeks, it disappeared without a trace.

Trying to get myself to calm down, I laid down on the grass looking towards the slowly sauntering clouds in the sky. I always had found looking at cloud calming and peaceful, with them managing to float without a worry or care in the world. Unlike the rest of us, they could float in the sky without fear of being pulled down the second they let their guard down. The second they let everything collapse around them.

Unlike the rest of us, they were living the dream.

I sighed, and closed my eyes, realizing that looked at the clouds was not helping, only causing my mind to relate my situation to clouds. Instead, I tried to think about the better times, the ones before this week. The ones where we were still searching for clues on Riley's and Hex's whereabouts.

It almost felt like a century ago that the chain reaction that lead to all this starting happened, although I knew it was only less then a week ago. We had heard some rumor of a giant location functioning like a guild having formed in the north. Not having any luck finding him ourselves, we figured we would go check up there if anybody had seen him and possible try to see if anybody had any leads. Going in, I had no clue that there was a chance he was a leader of the place, although knowing how much of a overachiever he was, I should have known.

When we arrived there, I told Pansear and Tyrunt to stay back until later that night, while I went and asked around to see if anybody had seen him. I was expecting to hear everyone say no, but the first town member I found, a rather peculiar Quagsire, blew that out of the water when he, with a fairly odd amount of hesitation, told me he was the leader of the guild he referred to as the Paradise. Looking back, that 'was' might have been the first indicator something was wrong, but I was too overjoyed to care.

Of course, in the end, it all turned out to be for vain. When I walked into his house later that night, I got chased out by who I could only presume took over in his stead. I do not know why a psychopathic Pikachu would have any merit running a place like that but for all I knew he forcefully took over the place or something. Maybe he was trying to erase every sign that Riley was there, causing him to chase after me the second I entered. Either way, Riley was not there and I had no idea where he was. Maybe he was not even here anymore.

For all I knew, we were both doing the exact same things right now. For all I knew, me coming here was entirely pointless. That was the core issue of all of this, that I just did not know, and I was starting to doubt there was a way for me to ever truly know.

That was when I started hearing pounding footsteps behind me. Presuming this was the ambusher and that I was going to die, I slowly got up and turned around. Who turned out to actually be behind me caused me to stop dead in my tracks.

"Ty… Tyrunt?"

"You're alive?"

 _Spark's POV_

We had been walking in silence for a while, with only the sounds of the plains to accompany us. We had been going so slowly due to Dunsparce's sudden onset of self-denial due caused by none other them myself. I felt like trash for the entire time we had been walking since that interaction, yet I still could not bring myself to admit that Emolga did not say it. Besides, feeling like trash was not anything especially new for me, with it basically being a daily occurrence.

That does not mean it was not especially bad today, but it was not the newest thing in the world to me. Of course, I could not express it, lest I blow my facade. Instead, I suffered quietly, occasionally looking back at Dunsparce to see if he had gotten any better. For the most part, it was a big no.

One, giant, big, red glaring no.

Any hopes I had of getting to the close vicinity of Scarlet Town were out the window, due to the sheer distance between us and the crossroads and the fact that evening was starting to come. That was not to say we were done walking yet, but I knew in our state we could not continue walking through the night. So, we did need to stop at some point, but the question was more when then if. I still wanted to go much further but I was not sure Dunsparce was keen on doing so, with his condition right now being evidence of that. I got out the map to see how much further we had to go, so I knew what else we had to go through after this.

I looked at the map, and saw that the road branching off from the crossroads only real obstacle was a small stream and a short forest walk to the town after a long pathway out of the Great Plains. No mystery dungeons, no long winding roads, nothing that would take a giant amount of time to traverse.

Right as I was about to put the map away, I heard Dunsparce say, "Oh… did… did something… something change involving our route?"

"No, just taking a quick peep at it." I said, raising my voice in a attempt to sound happier.

I did not know whether he bought it, with him going back to looking at the local scenery the plains provided in the distance. If I were just walking through here, exploring, it might have actually been pretty relaxing. But, nothing was relaxing right now, after the last few days. I was not sure if anything would ever be relaxing again. Of course, that was a over exaggeration, but it seemed to get more and more merit every passing second.

In a attempt to get my mind off of the cynical thoughts in it, I said,"Beautiful scenery, isn't it?"

"Yeah it is… it… it reminds me… reminds me of… of old times. Back when… when… everything was much… much better." As much as I wished I did not, I heard slight sobbing from him behind me, with that itself being a giant under exaggeration I made in order to keep myself feeling worse then I was right now.

Internally grimacing, I immediately quieted down and just continued walking in peace, scared of the reaction that had just come from Dunsparce. I thought he would have gotten a little better by this point but he sounded worse. His condition was starting to concern me more and more yet I could not do anything without going back on what I said. Without breaking my facade in half and showing my real self, something I knew I could not do.

I knew I needed to try to say something at least thought, so I said, "Hey, I'm getting concerned for you, Dunsparce, are you alright or…"

He looked down towards the ground. "I… I think… I think you know the answer."

I did, as much as I did not want to admit it, I did.

"Are you sure I can't help at all or…"

"N… no… I… I just want to… to be left alone right now," he went silent for a minute, looking at the endlessly rolling plains, "If you… you can give me that… at least."

I sighed, "Fine then, sorry I bothered you."

We continued to walk in utter silence through the endless rolling plains, hoping we would be better by the end of the trip. But we both knew that was not going to be the case. Everything in this world crashes and burns at one point, and this situation was no exception.

All I wondered was when.

 _Snivy's POV_

Before I even had a chance to say anything else, he instantly said, "Snivy, you need to go, now."

My mind ignored his warnings as I started walking towards him and said, "Look, I just thought you were dead for the last half of a day, what could be so urgen-"

"That would probably be me."

Three shurikens made of water came flying out of the nearby alleyway, hitting Tyrunt directly and leaving 3 long gashes along his sides. He came crashing down as I saw a Greninja emerge from the alleyway, smiling dementedly in my direction as Tyrunt tried and failed to get back up, probably due to the giant pain he was feeling on his sides.

She started to chuckle. "Oh, who do have here, the other friend of that pest Pansear. Well, I guess I should introduce my real self before anything else."

What I had previously thought was a Greninja instantly was bathed in a coat of white light as I saw his form shift into that of a Zoroark. That was when the events of last night all clicked.

All I could hear was her demented laughter as she glanced around Tyrunt's collapsed body on the ground. "Oh, such a sad sight, to see someone once so threatening fall like a domino," she circled around him, "Such a very sad, sad, sight."

Feeling brave, I said, "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

She slightly hesitated before saying, "Oh, so that Pansear you call your friend did not tell you about me, let me inform you then," he started to slightly laugh, "So, you may refer to me as Achlys."

"O… okay," I started to back away, with all the earlier bravery I had felt instantly draining out of me the second I heard the way her voice changed when it was directed at me, "Well, it was nice to uh… meet you and all, but I have to get goin-"

More demented chuckling came out of his mouth, "Oh, but your not going anywhere. We are just getting started."

I backed away as I saw her grin grow larger and larger, "No one gets away from me or the Five Thieves, no matter how hard they try."

"No one ever gets away forever."

I saw her lunge at me as I attempted to rapidly back up before tripping on a rock. Knowing she was not going to hesitate, I closed my eyes expecting it to be over in seconds.

"Snivy, you have to get away, now!"

My eyes opened to not the afterlife but to sky. I quickly got myself up and saw Tyrunt was barely managing to hold down the Zoroark that was just about to kill me.

Despite all of this, and everything inside of me screaming to take the opportunity to run, I could not bring myself to just leave Tyrunt here.

"But… you'll… you'll die."

He rebounded as the Zoroark transformed into a Greninja and escaped his grasp, throwing more shurikens made of water at Tyrunt, leaving more gashes. He looked at me, "Do I… I look like I care about my own mortality at this point," he was visibly having trouble speaking due to the injuries the Zoroark had inflicted on him, "Just… just find them, please."

"Find him… don't… don't let this all be for vain."

Seeing no reason to argue with him, I quickly dropped my large bag that slowed me down and ran as fast as possible, ignoring the pain-filled screams that echoed in the air behind me. He was right, I needed to find them. But that did not stop one fact sticking with me throughout that entire night, one fact that was confirmed when I heard the screams abruptly stop behind me as I ran into the woods illuminated by the last lights of day.

Tyrunt was gone.

 _Spark's POV_

The campfire slowly raged less and less as we settled down for the night on the side of the road. It had been a long day, and I nor Dunsparce felt like talking much so we spent the night in pretty much utter silence. That did not mean my brain stopped thinking about the horrid things I inadvertently managed to do today. I had somehow, only with one lie, managed to cause Dunsparce massive amounts of pain I never wanted or intended for him to feel. So much of me still wanted to go over and tell him I was lying but I suppressed it, still not willing to crack the facade I had formed over the last few months.

Instead of talking to Dunsparce, like so much of me wanted to, I found myself staring up into the unending night sky. When I was young, I was always told the stars hid the stories everyone has forgotten. The stories of brave heroes and of disasters that almost came to be. It was like history, where the oldest stories are only implied by later events but are never truly written down or found anywhere.

In my head, I knew I was only thinking about these things to distract myself, but that did not matter to me at the time. All that mattered was getting my mind down from the pit it had managed to fall in over the last week, and preparing myself for the inevitable encounter I was going to have with Snivy and her band of criminals when I entered Scarlet city.

I knew doing this was completely insane and stupid. I knew we were more then likely going to fail and share whatever fate they had for Emolga, but I did not care about that when I left Post Town earlier this morning. What I cared about was not letting Dunsparce going further and further down the depression cycle I see him going down right now, to get him back Emolga so that he did not have to go through what I went through after Riley disappeared.

But this was not some happy story you would find in a children's book and I knew that. I knew we were more then likely not going to get back Emolga. I knew that we were not going to get vengeance on Snivy. I knew we were not going to set things right. I knew this was all some stupid idea made by my stupid self in a attempt to stupidly set all of this right. But deep down I knew one thing much, much better then the rest. One thing I hated to admit to myself yet knew was going to turn out to be the truth in the end of this giant ordeal.

Emolga was gone.

 _Achlys' POV_

 _Come out, come out, wherever you are._

 _Come out, come out, and play._

 _Come out, come out, wherever you are._

 _For you can only hide so long._


	9. Chapter 7: Snow

Small little conversion thing for anybody who cares out there, one poké dollar is equal to 100 of the normal in game currency, so think of it as adding a decimal two digits in.

* * *

 _Chapter 7: Snow_

 _Riley_ _'s POV_

I found myself back in a familiar area; iridescent lights glowing and shifting around all the haze surrounding the area I was in, with it all being centered around one small pond of water. To anybody who had never been there before, the pool of water might have seemed to only be a irrelevant, trivial little detail compared to the large, luminescence lights glowing all around the haze surrounding the area, if not for one thing.

That one thing was the fact that it was the exact same pool I had first found myself at when Hydreigon called for help all that time ago, the catalyst for everything that I was involved with back then and even now. The pool laid there in front of me, almost expectantly, as if it was expecting to drag me back in not long after my return. As much as I did not want to do this for the sake of finding my sister, I knew there was no way out of this.

Taking a few more moments to savor the last few moments I had as my old self again, I started walking towards the rim of the pool, closing my eyes in anticipation that it all was going to happen again. I knew if they really did need my help so badly, I should not be so hesitant to do so, but I could not bring myself to leap head-first into the thing. Instead, I only waited in dread while standing in front of the lake, waiting for that feeling of losing myself to creep through me like it had so long ago when I turned into a Axew in front of this body of water. I waited, and waited, and waited.

But nothing came.

I opened my eyes to the same face I had still had moments prior, nothing being different. It was almost surreal, seeing my own reflection reflected on the lake that I had associated that one day around half a year ago with for so long. But I still was wondering why I was back here in the first place if it was not to bring me back to the other world.

My eyes wandered around the entire area, taking in all the body of water had to offer. The first time I came here, I had not gotten a chance to even look at the place in full much before I found myself plummeting downwards towards that forest Spark originally found me in all that time ago. There was nothing that interesting I could really look at for that long, so I eventually relegated to laying down on the ground, closing my eyes.

Everything stayed silent for a while, and I was planning to just get up and try to find another way out when I started to hear a cacophony of screeching. Finding myself unable to move, it grew louder and louder and louder and louder, clawing it's way deep into my eardrums and ringing around like a air horn being shoved in deep in your ear and then blow. It did not seem like it would end.

But then it did.

"Wh-"

"Who is this gu-"

I was back, laying back down on the cold hard tram inch layer of cushioning, finding myself unable to open my eyes for a moment and only hearing half sentences from what sounded like two distinct people standing above me while I tried to figure out what in the world had happened moments prior.

"Why isn't this guy waking up for Arceus' sake… I don't get paid enough for dealing with annoying new age people who act like this on a daily basis."

"Me neither… you talk like anybody in this city gets paid enough as is."

Knowing the seat of a tram cart would not be the best place to contemplate what in the world had just occurred, I opened my eyes to the tram cart I had fallen asleep on the night prior; along with two men in their mid-60s towering over me.

"Oh look, Mr. Sleeping Beauty here is finally awake…" I heard the rightmost one grumble to himself as I slowly started to get up.

Ignoring the rude comment, half because I did actually waste their time and half because I was still too freaked out by the earlier experience to really care, I picked up my bag I had left on the ground and said, "How long have you two been trying to wake me up?"

The leftmost worker angrily glanced at me as I got up from the seat."How long? Ten full heckin' minutes. Ten of 'em."

Slightly grimacing at the fact I was out for that long, I tried to make up a excuse. "Oh… sorry, I'm kind of a deep sleeper an-"

The other worker interrupted me. "Yeah, that's what all you new age people say, blaming your problems on stupid fake things doctors make up in order to make mo' money, the usual. Just get out and stop wasting our valuable time with your petty little reasons."

Fully realizing what type of people I was within feet from, I quickly found Hex's pokéball resting on the other side of seats, with him inside it for once, before saying, "Okay then, I'll be off."

I started to quickly walk away while rolling my bike out, not wanting to hear another word come out of their trashy mouths. I was not fast enough to avoid hearing the leftmost guy say, "Stupid southerners, always comin' up here, thinkin' they own the entire place."

"Hmph, sure we think that," I said under my breath, as I got on the bicycle I had been rolling out of the cart beforehand and rode away from the two individuals that were in the process of polluting the air around them with their stupid words. It was not the greatest first impression, but considering what had happened in Driftveil while I was leaving I shrugged it off and opted to think about more important things, since I knew it would be a bad idea to try to talk to Hex in the middle of the city.

As I rode into the city, I found it to be much more desolate then the slight memories I had of it entailed. There was snow lining the roads, with the sidewalks being the only place my bike did not get stuck too deep within all of the snow present. Most of the house lights were turned off, creating the illusion of the entire area being abandoned despite the few pedestrians finding their way through the city by foot or occasionally car.

Not wanting to gawk at the scenery any further, I diverted my attention back to that 'dream', if it could even be called that, I had earlier. I mean, if I was basing it off what Linden told me once while he was doing research on Munna, dreams come from what you see during the day, and it is what you see while your mind tries to organize all that information while you sleep, cleaning out the unnecessary stuff in the process. So, well that sounds fine, where would that agonizing scrapping noise come from within my memory. Was it the tram malfunctioning and scrapping against the wire or something while I slept? Or was is something else?

The city flew past me as I found myself trying to reason out what had happened last night, the trees covered in snow and not many people out on the streets after what seemed to be a big batch of snow coating the city, something rarely seen in Driftveil due to the hot air from around the Desert Resort being blown towards it and sticking around due to the wall that is the Twist Mountains. This was something I had learned when Linden was testing some moves involving some weird pokémon he had been sent from Hoenn I believe, with it's name eluding me at the moment.

It was just yet another gap in the beaten and battered patchwork that was my understanding of the current situation, staying right next to the whole dream last night and Linden's whole reaction to my story, all things I planned on trying to get on top of figuring out once I got to my grandmother's house.

That was the plan anyways, whether it actually would come to fruition was another story, but it was something, at least.

I kept on riding for a bit trying to make progress towards the house before I remembered that I promised Linden I would contact him once I had gotten in Mistralton. Annoyed at the fact that I had forgotten, I quickly got out my phone and found myself accompanied with only the sound of low, faint ringing. It rang once, twice, thrice, but nobody picked up, either due to a lack of signal strength or Linden being busy right now. Being honest, it was probably both simultaneously knowing my luck.

Sighing, and knowing I was not going to go anywhere if I kept on loitering in the middle of the street, I sat back up on the bike and pushed down on the pedals; in a attempt to make some further progress towards my grandmother's house. It went decently well at first, the snow not giving much resistance, until I saw it rise more and more until I found myself on edge about going further and ruining it.

Knowing it would be a bad idea to destroy my one source of transportation, I relegated to looking around for a open restaurant or a place to rest while some of the snow melted or was cleared out by salt vans, whatever came first. Not many people were outside due to the amount of snow, and even less wanted to answer questions of some random guy badgering them on the side of the street. Realizing what I was doing was not working, I started to walk down the side of the street lined with unlit windows, in hope that I would find one.

Starting to lose hope of finding any place that was not closed down for the day, I turned the street corner to see a little diner with its lights on. Figuring there was not reason why I should be picky, I parked my bike in the small bike rack tucked away in front of the place, and then walked into the restaurant, hearing a small chime as I opened the door. The place looked like something straight out of a trucker movie, with a small jukebox playing music on the side and booth tables, along with stools lining the side of the counter. The place was filled with a odd sort of familiarity as well, although I was not sure whether that was due to the fact that it looked like every other diner I had ever been to or if it was something else.

Right as I was about to sit down, I was what looked to be the waitress walk out of the back room, saying, "Oh, so ya the one I heard stompin' 'round up here. Didn't think we'd get anybody wantin' to come over here after that giant blizzard last night."

Slightly taken aback at the similar accent she had to the two skinheads back near the tram, I hesitantly walked towards the counter and said, "Yeah… I… I came from Driftveil yesterday."

"Driftveiler, I don't see many of those up here nowadays," She slightly glanced back at the door before turning back to face me, "I mean, ya don't seem that bad for one of 'em. Tell ya what, I'll be comin' back in a few. Sit down and decide what ya want to grub on while I go back in the kitchen."

Right as I thought she was about to leave the room, I heard her turn around one last time and say, "Oh, and feel free to let any pokémon you have out as well as long as they don't go settin' the place up in flames or anythin' of the sort. I'll trust ya to use your best judgement."

I heard her continue walking away as I sat down at one of the booths nearest to the front door, giving me a view of my bike to ease my fear that some street robber would make away with it while I was eating. Remembering what the lady had said and figuring Hex had been cooped up for long enough, I got his poké ball out and pressed down on the front button, causing him to materialize out of white energy that beamed out of the ball.

He just stood around for a second, glancing around at the surroundings, probably surprised at the change in scenery, before he said, "So... this is Mistralton? Huh." He climbed up onto the seat opposite of mine in the booth and looked out the side of the window, peering out of it, "Kinda… a lot more snowy and desolate then I expected, but it works I guess."

I put down the menu I had been looking through earlier and looked back up at him, before saying, "Yeah, I know, it's strange. To be fair, I haven't been down here in over 15 years, so I don't know if my memory is that bad but I really thought this place was not this snowy most of the time."

He stopped staring out the window and sat back down on the seat. "Well, whatever then, figures we would show up the one day everything was dark and grim and all that, but hey, at least you found a great 'rustic' place for us to stick around in."

For as much as I wanted to pretend I was being over suspicious, the longer I talked with Hex, the more it sounded like his sarcasm was not coming off naturally like it did back in Driftveil. It was as if he was forcing it in order to sound fine when he was not. As much as I wanted to help him though, I found myself hesitating to ask him about it, afraid that being direct would just cause him to get mad at me like yesterday and get me nowhere closer towards figuring out what his issue was. This left the room with only the old jukebox music to accompany it as I searched through the menu wondering whether I should change my mind and just ask him.

The final decision of not saying anything, at least at the time, came when I heard the kitchen door slam open as the waitress emerged from it, carrying the notepad every waitress ever is thought to have. She walked up towards our booth with me having decided what I wanted already; the menu sitting down near the edge of the table. The second she arrived at our booth she started staring at Hex, putting him visibly on edge.

"Hmph, can't say I'd ever seen a Charmander made of bone with a tail that don't go settin' things on fire, but 'ey, that's just me," me, not liking where this was going, buried my face in the menu not wanting to see what occurred if she said a line to baby him, "What is it, a Alolan type or something."

I peered up from the menu to Hex getting up from the seat and facing me. "I'm just… gonna pretend she isn't there while you order whatever you're getting, if you need me, I'll be in the booth over here."

Hex got up and hopped out of the booth momentarily, walking towards the edge of the diner. The waitress face rang with bewilderment at the fact that the pokémon had directed it's attention solely at me, before she seemingly forgot about it and faced back towards me.

"Huh, that's one grumpy 'ittle Charmander ya got there, does he always walk away from people or…"

I visibly heard Hex growling, grabbing both her and my attention and causing me to answer her with haste. "Uh… anyways, I'll take the bacon and eggs if that is possible."

Seemingly distancing herself from the booth containing Hex, she said, "Oh… uh, yeah that... that shouldn't be a issue at all, I'll be gettin' right on that for ya, just let me go get it all written down first."

My only company was the noise of her scribbling down the order as I looked out the window to the snow that had accumulated out on the road. The fact that such a giant storm hit a city known for transportation of goods via plane seemed absurd, almost comical in a way.

So why did it feel so jarring when compared to everything else absurd that had happened to me this week, like a golf cart driving through the middle of a war re-enactment or something of the sort. Why did it feel like it did not belong there.

"Uh, hey, ya wantin' a drink with that or what? Kinda been waitin' for a answer for awhile now, if ya don't mind givin' me one."

Realizing I had gotten caught up in my own thoughts again, I turned back from the window towards the waitress and said, "Oh, sorry, my bad, do you have coffee?"

"Ah yes, coffee, the thing everyone is always drinkin' 'round here. Are ya more of a medium or a large kinda guy?"

"Uh," not really liking the way she said the previous sentence, I said, "I'll just… go with a medium please."

She started scribbling down all the details she had just gotten out of me, before saying, "Oh, uh, one more thing I'm havin' to ask ya before I go getcha your food, black or with milk?"

Slighting hesitating for a moment, I said, "Just black, nothing fancy please."

"Okay then," she finished writing down all the things she presumably needed to on her notepad, "Next time ya are seein' me, it'll be with a plate full of the food ya ordered. Till then, I'll be in the kitchen."

And like that, the waitress walked out of the room for the second time that day going back into the kitchen leaving me alone again the room, with the jukebox music being the only company I had at the moment.

Hex peeked his head over the side of the wall, softly asking, "Is she gone yet?"

He sighed in relief as I slowly nodded my head, before he climbed on the seat and said, "Well, I'm glad that chapter of the grand tale of 'Riley and Co's adventure" is over now, or at least, until she probably brings you a plate of burnt food." He started to slightly chuckle as if it was funny or something. Which it was not.

Trying to word my words in a way that a trainer would talk to their pokémon in a one sided way like, and not trying to demonize Hex's behavior just yet, I said, "So uh… why were you so mad at the waitress anyways?"

The chuckling stopped immediately, right in time for the jukebox song to stop along with it, killing any jovial mood the place had retained in spite of the large amounts of snow outside. Both of us just sat there, waiting for the other to say something first.

Hex eventually gave up waiting and said, "Look, forget what I said, she just…" he slightly hesitated, looking out the window somberly, before continuing, "It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, just... forget about it, please."

I was not about to just forget about it, with me being actively concerned as to why he was being so aggressive towards her. So instead of backing off, I went further in.

"It doesn't sound like nothing, can you just tell me why you reacted that way towards her, instead of hiding it, like you usually do?"

He started to back away into the seat, saying with haste, "It doesn't matter, okay! Can we not do this right now?"

I saw him go further and further back as I leaned closer and closer, "Why does it matter so much? What are you hiding that makes you so hesitant to tell me? Why?"

"Why are you doing this? Why? What could possibly be so important t-"

The next moment I found myself dodging his claw, covered in white energy, by jumping to the side of the seat. The next thing any normal human being would do would be to lunge for the poké ball and try to forcefully return the rouge pokémon to the ball, but in the situation I was in, I was far from being normal. Instead, the first thing I did was peek over the side of the table to see Hex not aggravated like I expected but instead looking at himself in disgust, staring at one side of his arm and then the other.

Looking at it as if he blamed it instead of himself.

After a second, he noticed me. Having presumably taken my peering over the side of the table as a sign of fear, he went back to staring at the limb that he had lunged at me moments prior. "Of course I attack him, of course I try to claw him when all he wants is answers, of course I leave him peering off the side of the seat because he's afraid I'll do it again."

He sat down and covered his eyes with his hands. "Of course I've become the very thing I've hated all of these years, a monster. One big, giant, monster. One that slashes at people trying to help him."

"A monster that everybody would be better off without, a monster that lost his purpose ten years ago."

Realizing what he was about to do, I tried to lunge at him but it was too late, with him already running out the door like a mad man. Before I had a chance to give chase after him as well, the door opened as if on cue, with the waitress coming out with the food and coffee I had ordered minutes prior, leaving me unable to leave the restaurant as I heard the door tauntingly chime back at me after Hex ran through it, onto the snowy streets of Mistralton, alone.

Alone, and quite possibly gone forever.

Right before I stood up to try to pay the tab, the waitress started to blabber her mouth and say, "Oh, did another customer decide comin' in after all that storm that was abrewin' last night? Shame I missed them."

I wanted to interrupt her so badly, but I had a funny feeling this would take even longer if I got her on her bad side, so I sat back down and stayed silent as she went on.

"Quite the dramatic phone call ya were having out over here, I was hearin' it all the way over from the kitchen," I slightly grimaced at the fact that she had managed to hear all of it, which she of course noticed, "Hey, it's fine, I won't judge. It wasn't like there was anybody else in here that would've been bothered by it, unless that was the whole reason that other guy went walkin' right outta that door a few moments ago if ya remember that."

She then, seeming as slow as humanly possible, put down a plate filled with two odd looking eggs and bacon that were bit too black to be cooked properly, along with the coffee that was a bit too bitter for my tastes. Of course, she waited on putting down the tab leaving me unable to pay and letting Hex get further and further away with each passing second. And to top it all of, she took my reaction towards the food as a excuse to continue talking.

"Yeah, I uh… I'm not really the, uh… 'normal' cook here if I'm being honest with ya," I relocated my attention from the burnt, overdone food sitting limply on my plate back to the window trying to see which direction he possibly went, the snow showing no hint of footprints anywhere, as the lady continued, "I'm usually the… the barista here, but as ya can see… it turned out that I was the only one who took the liberty in showin' the hell up s-"

Getting sick and tired of hearing about how she was a barista and why that was a excuse for her to blabber on and on endlessly I slammed my palms against the table and then pushed myself up off the table using them, getting up in her face before saying, "Look, that's great and all, but can I please have my tab so I can get going, something came up and I need to go attend to it, capiche?"

The waitress started stumbling backwards, more then likely not expecting the sudden starkness coming from me. She started stammering out words, much like Dunsparce whenever he opened his mouth to talk about how he wanted to be a great explorer. "Oh… oh uh, yeah… yeah that'll be… be fine, ya want take out or… o-"

Not even bothering to hide my rage anymore, I said, "Can I just have the tab for Arceus' sake?"

"Oh uh… uh sure yeah… yeah that'll be fine I'll… I'll get ya it in a sec' just… just hang on for… for for a moment if ya… ya can sir… I'll be right back with that."

She started saying words in a long chain without hesitation, repeating words and stuttering whenever possible, stammering words out repeatedly like someone who was about to be fired in a city where you had to sell your soul to get a job. After a few moments, a to-go box along with the tab found it's place on the edge of my table, as I quickly poured the contents of my plate into the box and shoved it into the deepest recesses of my bag. I then put down a twenty before finally getting up and starting to run out of the diner. As I ran out the door towards my bike, I was taunted one last time by the what used to inviting chime the door bell gave off as I jumped on my bike and peddled as fast as possible, hoping that he could not have gotten far.

Of course, I felt bad about being as rude as I was to the lady, but I figured that stopping Hex from doing something he would regret was much more important then waiting for her to finish her rant. Finding myself parched, I started sipping the slightly bitter coffee, surprisingly bad considering the fact it was made by a actual barista, as I wondered how in the world all of that stuff that went down in the cafe came about. I mean, I knew it was my pushing that caused it, but how big of a secret could it really be that it made him feel like he needed to attack me to protect it. How bad could it truly be?

I found myself taking another sip of the bitter coffee I had, with it odd bitterness honestly not really even bothering me at the moment. In fact, it just seemed fitting considering the sour tone this entire day had taken in the course of minutes, a fitting drink for the type of day today was managing to establish itself as.

As I rode along, I kept looking at the side of the road for any sign of foot prints, or even Hex himself, but I could not find him or any, with them either being covered up by more snow falling or me simply messing up and following the wrong road in my attempt to locate him. Not willing to give up just yet, I kept on going.

Looking through alleyway after alleyway; road after road after road, in some attempt to find someone who obviously did not want to be found, to be seen. To say I was sorry for demanding him to tell me everything.

To make this all right.

But, like most things involving me for the last several days, it did not end happily. After what felt like hours of searching, the sun seemingly racing through the sky as if to mock me throughout all of this, I found myself unable to find him. No matter where I looked or what road I found myself thoroughly searching or who I asked, no one knew where he was. The city was just way too big for me to be able to find someone like him, leaving me with no one but myself to consult about all of this.

Seeing the sun starting to get near the end of it's journey through the sky, I figured I needed to go back to my house and do what I originally planned to do when I arrived her, get my Drilbur and try to figure out where Alexia had went; that did not stop it from feeling wrong though. The streets were much more active then earlier in the day; the snow having melted away as the day progressed and most seeing it as a opportunity to get something done and not sit around in their homes all day.

That was when I rode past one of the local parks and saw a rally taking place. At first I thought it was just another Team Plasma rally, one where they would claim all those pokémon in the tower in Driftveil yesterday were 'liberated' from the torture they would say their trainers would put on them, but it was not.

It was that same group of people, logo and everything, that had held that rally over in Driftveil the day of the attack. The same logo and group that had made me feel extremely uneasy when I had first seen them back during that great final day Driftveil left me with. Everything inside of me was telling me to just leave and pretend I had not seen anything.

But, I did not do that, as rational as it would have been. Instead, I found myself parking my bike on the bike rack right outside the park and finding myself in yet another crowd, albeit a bigger one, standing on a podium with two logos to each side featuring two letters, NH. It was more then likely a abbreviation of some sort, but I was curious as to what it stood for. I tried to think of what it could possible stand for for a few seconds, but to no avail; the only result being stupid little phrases like 'Neo-Hippies' I knew could not be it coming up in my head.

Giving up in trying to figure it out, I looked back up from the sides to see that the same speaker who had gave the speech back in Driftveil was up on the stage again, weird hair and all. He was tentatively tapping the mic, checking to see if it worked, until the sound of the tapping became very clear and loud, causing some people to have to cover their ears, signaling him to stop.

He put his hand behind his head in nervousness over the mistake. "Uh… sorry about that, just having to make sure the equipment is working before we begin. This would have been done beforehand, but the whole blizzard that hit last night prevented that from occurring."

That blizzard again. The longer and longer time went on, the more it felt like some giant enigma no one understood, and not a abnormally powerful blizzard like I assumed for most of the day it was. Trying to get my thoughts off of the blizzard, I brought my attention back to the speaker on the podium, having missed what he had said for the last few moments.

It did not seem like I missed much. "In any case, may I thank anyone who has decided to attend this after all the… 'complications' that occurred earlier today," I heard him slightly sigh, "We welcome you all for at least coming: whether it be because you heard what we had to say over in Driftveil; because the attack on the battle tower in Driftveil a few days prior; or even just plain out curiosity as to what in the world we are, New Horizon welcomes you regardless."

Figures they would omit the team portion of that, lest they scare away any new possible recruits they could get. Still though, the name seemed peculiar, at least when compared to all the one word team names I had heard recently.

Chucking my suspicion up to me being too willing to make weird connections between things, I heard the speaker continue talking. "In any case, to begin, let us talk about the attack in Driftveil a few days back," more murmuring broke out in the crowd as I waited for the recruitment pick up line to come straight out of his mouth. I waited, and waited, until he finally started to speak again, "Now, before I get anything thrown at me, or someone claims I'm using a tragedy to justify my own means, would anybody care to raise their hand if they witnessed the event themselves, so you can give us an insider perspective before we go on."

Not wanting to be ushered up or noticed in the crowd, I stayed silent. It became obvious if anybody else had seen it happen, they were doing the same, as the entire crowd was level, without any hands being up that I could see at least.

He continued speaking. "No one? Okay then. In any case, even if no one here witnessed it as it happened, I think we can all agree that it was a horrible loss of life, both for the pokémon and the people in the building. Are we in agreement?"

A bunch of people around my shook their heads, with me staying silent, not wanting to actively participate in this place that I still had my sincere doubts about even being at.

"Good, glad we are in agreement with the rest of Unova and the majority of the world as well. In any case, there has been a lot of people throwing names around as to who would do something like this, like Team Plasma, or those insurgents in that region down south, or some mad man that just wanted to the entire Unova region to be in chaos for a few days."

People all around me started talking to each other about the event, with me overhearing some talking about losing their relatives in the accident. This went on for quite a while, until it was broken up when the man on the stage tapped the mic again, getting everyone's attention with a lower sound this time.

"So," he said, quickly looking down before looking back up again, "While everyone has agreed that this has been a horrid event to befall this great nation, nobody has been able to pinpoint any specific evidence as to who has done this," a small grin formed on his face, "Well, until now that is."

People started visibly talking again, but that did not stop him. "We have proof. Proof that definitively pins the blame on Team Plasma for all of this. Proof that we'll let you all witness right now."

The speaker walked out of the way as a projector started displaying what looked to be the video from within the airplane, presumably the one that crashed into the battle tower a few days ago. The first thing I heard was some kid crying and then pointing their phone out of the cabinet, albeit shakily and with horrible quality. But there was one detail that was clear and daylight, and that was the Team Plasma emblem on a lot of people's uniforms who were walking around the hallways, making sure no one moved an inch.

Suddenly, the video stopped, and the speaker went back to the microphone. "So, any questions? Anyone?"

I, nor anybody else in the rally, raised their hands following the video. Although while it was more then likely just out of the sake of no one else doing it for everyone else, it was different for me.

It was different for me, because I was now vividly remembering that day on repeat in my head, hearing the screams and the flames and the helicopters buzzing by like it was happening right in front of me.

My breath started to turn heavy as I realized I needed to get out of this place, now, before it got worse. I quickly started pushing my way out of the crowd, wanting to be out as soon as I could. There were a lot more then I expected, slowing me down and causing for me to have to push harder to get out. I was starting to question just how many people could possibly be interested in a speech being given by a speaker with green hair before I finally found myself outside the crowd and back in the parking lot.

And although I did get out, I was not fast enough to prevent myself hearing one last sentence from the speaker. "Are you really that different, on the inside at least, then all of your pokémon? Are you?"

Still seeing the scene on repeat in my head, and not wanting to turn a angry mob of people after me, I suppressed the urge to say, 'fat chance you really know,' and instead tried to bike away in peace, unable to get the imagery that video had planted back in my head out again.

I had, in all honesty, had started to forget about it, but that video brought it back in full force. I felt the anger starting to seethe back up into me that day, the feeling of seeing what you once called your home attacked by people seeking nothing more then some sort of authority they never deserved in the first place. I tried to think of anyone, or anything that would get my mind off of all of this, something at the very least. It seemed like there was nothing the more and more I tried.

That was, until I thought about what Spark would say if he saw me like this.

Spark, Mr. Optimism himself. He had helped me to see the light in everything rather then the dark, to not get bogged down about all the crime and all the people we could not help by the end of the day. The one thing I swore to myself I would not forget, his positive outlook towards everything. And here I was, throwing that promise away, angry about Hex running away and towards whoever ran a plane into that tower and everything of that sort, throwing away that promise I made.

In my eyes, Spark had always been this light in the world full of shadows and hatred. He managed to keep a smile on his face constantly, seeing the good side of everything rather then the dark side like most would after going the stuff he hinted at happening to his parents. Heck, he even managed to stay bright and sunshiny even when I almost got killed by Kyurem, something that would have ended any chance of stopping the Bitter Cold. In all my time of knowing him, there was only one time I saw him angry, and that was the final day I was in that world, with him looking up at me from the paradise almost as if I had betrayed him.

Finding myself in a much calmer state now, I turned the bike onto the road I believed the house was on, if I had gotten the address right which I was almost positive about. The road seemingly stretched on forever, with the sun finding its place on the horizon of it all, slowing setting as I biked along, repeating the address as a mantra in my mind, reminding myself this would all be fine in the end, like Spark had always told me.

Eventually, it came into view, with my bike slowing down as I rolled it into the front yard of the house; the entire experience feeling extremely surreal, like something out of a movie. Both Drilbur and whatever Alexia had left behind alongside him were waiting for me inside of there, bringing me closer to wherever she had gone.

If I could actually find her, that is, but that was besides the point.

I closed my eyes, and slowly started walking towards the door. had to do this: for Spark, who would be cheering me on telling me to go forward until I could not anymore; for Hex, to stop him from thinking of himself as a monster; for Emolga, who would want me to find my sister just like how I found Dunsparce for her; for Dunsparce, who had always wanted to be a adventurer but could never really find the motivation for himself to do it. For everyone.

I had to do this for everyone both here, and there, and most importantly, for myself. I had to.

Opening my eyes to a old oaken door, I hesitantly turned the knob and walked inside, opening one door, and closing another.

Everything was going to be okay, and I knew it.

It had to be.

* * *

 _..._

 _t-the pain..._

 _it's... it's starting to go away..._

 _but... is anybody else even there for me to even say that to?_

 _anybody at all?_


	10. Chapter 8: Running

…

* * *

 _Chapter 8: Running_

 _Snivy's POV_

In the last several days, I had done many things; one being running.

Running, running, and running.

I had been running a lot this week. Back when I was chased by that demented Pikachu, I had found myself running. Back when we had found ourselves victorious against that group in the woods, I had found myself running. Back when I woke up to Scarlet City burning down, I had found myself running. All I had been doing was running, running, and running.

Endlessly running. Whether it was running after or away from someone; it had always only been more running. Just more running, running, and running. More endless running. One foot in front of the other. The endless sound of my feet clanking against the rocks, the gravel, the hard dirt.

The endless sound of me constantly going, going, and going, without an end in sight. The endless sound of me running.

In a lot of ways, me running right now was not even that special. I had run alone before; not feeling lonely or even bad that there was no one there besides me. I had run through endlessly winding paths before, unknowing of where they would take me; the ending being just as surprising as the journey itself. I had run through the most straight-forward paths before, with the end being clearly in sight the entire time, only for it to rapidly turn near the end. Throughout all of this, there was always one constant, and that was me running.

Me constantly running, running, and running. Running until I got away. Running until I got answers. Running until I was safe. No matter what I was doing, I was always running.

But, if that was the case, then why did running here feel so special? Why did it make me feel like I needed to stop running?

Why was I still running, when I knew I did not deserve to be the one running here? When both Tyrunt and Pansear had long since stopped running?

I was the only one here running, and I wondered for what purpose.

Gripping my bag slightly closer, hearing the rattling of the one thing I still held dear, I continued running as I thought back to all the stuff I had been through. I had been running so much, yet covered so little distance. I had been running so much, yet I found myself back at square one. I had been running so much, yet here I was, running away yet again.

Running away, and alone. Alone, because I ran away from someone else who was previously running. Someone else who was previously running. Endlessly running, running, and running.

Running, running, and running, for no reason. No reason at all. Just running.

Truth be told, I had been running so much, that running had seemingly lost all purpose it once had. Sure, there were reasons, reasons like Tyrunt's last words, but he also thought that I could find Pansear, something I could only dream of now. There was also the fact that I did not want to let that fiend called Achlys finish her job completely, but I already knew she would catch up to me eventually; seeing how fast she took down Tyrunt, so that was not the reason. There was no reason, no matter how hard I tried to think of one: nothing could come to mind.

To me, there was no reason to keep on running. To me, it was just a pointless endeavor. Just one big fantasy.

In being honest, there was no real reason. No real reason to not just sit down and wait for the inevitable; it would not even be that hard. All I would have needed to do was just stop running. It would have been so, so easy; so much easier then still running after all of this time. And for all I knew, maybe they were waiting for me up there.

Up there, in the peaceful, carefree clouds. Up there, watching me running when they were not running anymore. Up there, waiting for me to stop running and join them. Up there, waiting.

I only needed to stop running, and this would all be over. That was all I needed to do.

Not seeing the point anymore, I slowly started running less and less, not being able to bring myself to come to a complete stop. The world slowed down around me, from the constant jog to a fast meander. It was then, that I tried to stop.

I tried, and tried, and tried. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not bring myself to truly stop running.

I could not bring myself to truly stop running, after all of this. I could not bring myself to end it all. And I did not know why I could not bring myself to do it. No matter how much I told myself that this was all pointless, no matter how much I told myself that this was something I needed to stop pushing off, something else inside of me kept telling me the exact opposite: to keep running, to keep going, to keep living. To think, even now, I felt conflicted the simplest of things.

My slow run soon went back to a jog, a jog I hated every minute of. But, that did not stop me running. Running, as I saw the scenery change all around me; the scattered shadows of night being wiped out by the golden rays of morning. The golden, beaming rays. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of a promise I made about something before all of this happened, before I found myself here, running.

Closing my eyes, I found myself hollowly chuckling at the entire situation; at the fact that I found myself pointlessly screaming at myself for not giving up. Just a day prior I was with Pansear and Tyrunt, thinking we had finally found a lead, and here I was now, running. Running, and hating every moment of it.

I already knew I would never stop running, because I had been running for so long already. I was not just about to stop running now, right when so many told me to not stop running. I could not just throw them to the dirt, and disregard their wishes.

All I had to do was keep on running, no matter what happened. As much as I did not want to, it was not a choice, I had to keep on running.

Running would never be living for most, but for me, it had.

And, at least at the time, it seemed to be staying that way.

 _Riley's POV_

In the last several days, I had done many things; one being hunting for the truth.

Throughout the last few days, I had constantly been searching for any answers I could find for as to why the chaotic situation that was playing out all around me was happening. I had heard people breaking and entering into homes. I had seen a skyscraper burn down twice, once in a nightmare—a nightmare that seemed less and less like a nightmare with every passing day—along with another time when it actually happened. I had seen a car crash I had almost entirely blocked out of my mind for the longest time. To put it lightly, I had seen a lot.

To think, all I expected when I got back from the other world after defeating the Bitter cold was peace, yet all I was greeted with was chaos. Extreme, utter chaos.

Chaos, and the insatiable need inside of me to figure out some kind of order in that chaos. There had to be a reason as to why it was so chaotic and why all of this had happened. The same insatiable need that lead me from my small, cozy house in Driftveil to the dark entryway of my grandmother's house. It was almost surreal, really, to finally be here after all this time.

That was when I heard one of the floorboard creak underneath me as I stepped onto it, getting snapped out of my train of thought and brought back to the dark, cramped room that was present all around me. Not wanting to stay in the dark any longer, I put my hand into the bag, trying to find something I could use in order to light up the place. My hand immediately went for Hex's poké ball, thinking he would be a go to source of light, before I sourly remembered what had happened when I pressed the button and it opened, and nothing coming out of it. Closing my eyes and slowly sighing, I pushed in further down into my bag, so I would not make that mistake again.

Also because I did not want to be constantly reminded of the one time my insatiable hunger for answers went wrong. The one time it went very, very wrong.

Taking a moment to reminisce over that, I turned my phone onto flashlight mode, me being worried as to why all the lights were still off in the first place. When I saw that the light switch was flipped to being on, I took a guess that the blizzard must have caused a circuit breaker to trip, or something along those lines. It had to be something like that.

But, if it tripped, then why were they not flipped back on when it got fixed? Why were they still off?

In a attempt to disregard the thought; chalking it up to me over-thinking all of this, I opened up the door to the living room, locking it behind me. It was just as dark as the entryway had been, leaving me to continue using my phone light to navigate the place. As I searched around the living room, being forced to use the small beam of light my flash light could produce as my only source of light, I found myself unable to really make out anything besides a door leading to what I guessed was the garage to my far-left, along with a few other doors. I would have kept on looking, but I found myself constantly on edge because of the floor.

The moaning, creaking, eerie floor that was constantly producing noises that taunted me every step I took; leading to me rushing towards the door that went into the garage, where the circuit breaker was kept, without a second thought. Quickly shining my phone light around the place to find the circuit breaker, I eventually saw it flicker out of the corner of my eye; before I started walking towards it. I pulled the hatch open and tried to flip them back on sequentially, starting with the one connecting to the garage room, before finding that it was not working. Or at least, not working right away. I would have to wait.

Wait, wait, and wait. As I waited, I swore the house moaned and groaned at me as I sat in the dark, hoping this would work. Eventually, after what felt like ages, the light flickered back on in the garage, exposing a black car along with a bunch of garage tools lining the sides of the walls. In a attempt not to overload the circuit breaker by trying to turn all of them back on at once, I sequentially turned them on one by one, hearing the suppressed lights throughout the house come back to life.

Seeing no reason to still use my flashlight, I put it away; before I pushed open the garage door and walked into the now lit living room. I did not let it stop me from immediately going towards the stairwell, growing increasing on edge every time I found something that indicated she had not gone anywhere, which if she had not.

Then this week had every capacity of becoming much, much more tragic within moments.

Starting to become hesitant over everything, I slowly walked up the stairwell, ignoring the creaks and moans noises produced as I got up to the second floor, with my mind being much more worried about one thing, the state of my grandmother. The power had seemingly gone out and she had left the car there, so what happened?

Was she…?

I found myself frozen as it slowly sank into me what might have happened to her. Her room was only a few steps away, yet I found myself unable to take those last few steps. I was not sure I even wanted to take those steps, if it meant that I would see what I thought I was about to see.

Holding my breath, and trying to pin it on my being overly pessimistic, I took the last few steps up the stairwell, each one seemingly taller and taller then the last, before I eventually found myself only a few feet from the door. I slowly walked towards it; hesitance and fear that this week was about to turn very sour in each step I took.

Despite trying to walk towards it as slowly as possible, I found myself standing in front of the door, the door to my grandmother's room. Hoping my worst fears were unfounded, and it was only the week starting to get to me, I slowly pushed open the door; it creaking louder and louder as more and more of the room was exposed. Closing my eyes, I pushed the door the rest of the way open, hoping I was not going to see what I thought I would see when I opened my eyes again.

When I did reopen them, I was relieved. She was not there.

I sighed in relief, happy that the week had not decided to get more tragic then it already was. Taking one last moment to look at the hallway behind me, I walked in and closed the door; figuring if she had kept Drilbur's poké ball anywhere, it would be in here.

It only took a few moments of searching before I found his poké ball tucked away in one of the drawers along with a small note from Alexia. Grabbing it and planning to let him out immediately after I read the note, I put it away in my bag before grabbing the letter and starting to read it, trying to take in everything I could from it.

 _Dear Riley_

 _If you're reading this, you've gotten all the way over_

 _to Mistralton, our home town. As I said before, I hope_

 _the fact that I'm writing these turns out to be in vain and_

 _that I do find you, but if it is not, then… well, that's why_

 _I'm writing these. In any case, in order to find me, I need_

 _you to go_

Suddenly, much to my chagrin, I noticed the light flicker above me a few times before all the power went out, leaving me in the dark again. Slightly annoyed, I got up from where I was sitting on the bed and went to open the curtains, disregarding the increased amount of noises I heard from the road.

It only took several beams of light from outside to shine in the room before I realized what was really happening; before finding myself in a state of pure terror, unable to move.

And I realized, in those few moments of pure trepidation, that I had been the hunted, and not the hunter.

Suddenly, I found myself ducking underneath the window still, as it shattered into tiny pieces that sprayed out all across the room. As I looked back up, I came face to face with a Staraptor.

I found myself frozen with fear.

 _Spark_ _'s POV_

In the last several days, I had done man- who am I even kidding.

I had not done many things, only one thing, hurt others. That is all I had done in the last several days; only seeing the scared faces of pokémon who were brought into this because of a stupid decision I had made. The stupid decision that had ended up getting both Lillipup and Emolga kidnapped. All I had accomplished was hurt others, and that was it. I had not done many things, I had done one, horrible thing.

Hurt others.

In a lot of ways, this was a result of a multitude of things; one being I had also let my mask start to slip because of Riley going, with the resulting freak out I had leading to me starting to show my true colors. The true colors of not Spark, but me. Of not the cheery and happy facade named Spark, but of me. The monster that was me, and not the pokémon everyone in the Paradise knew me for pretending to be. The one that started all of this by chasing after that Snivy hoping that they could find closure to all of this. That _thing_ I used to be less then a year ago.

That was not to say it did not exist anymore, since I was still that monster, that _thing_. Even back when I was in the Paradise, I was a still that _thing_ internally; it only hiding behind the facade of a young, peppy pokémon that was called Spark. I played his part like an actor, manipulating everyone into liking me, growing the place more and more and more with Riley on my side, that _thing_ that I used to be becoming less and less active the more time went on, with the acting becoming more and more natural, as time went on. I had become him, and it seemed like it was going to stay that way. And for what feels likes the longest time in my life, I felt… happy, I think.

Of course, it did not stay that way, considering the fact that I found myself running right here and now. But at least I felt hope for the first time in years. It was almost funny, really. How fast everything regressed back to how bad it all was at one point. But I was not laughing.

All it took was that one domino to fall for all of this to happen. For me to find that one note where Dunsparce used to be laying the night before. The one I picked up while I was still groggily waking up. The one that read like so:

 _I'_ m s _or_ ry.

 _I_ f yo _ur r_ ea _d_ i _ng t_ hi _s, i'_ m a _lre_ a _d_ y _g_ on _e._

I _ju_ st c _oul_ dn' _t_ h _an_ d _l_ e _i_ t a _ny_ m _o_ re _wi_ t _hou_ t E _m_ o _l_ ga.

 _G_ oo _d_ b _y_ e.

The note that was still in my hand as I ran desperately to try to find him. That note that I woke up to that day, making me feel like that _thing_ again. That note that reminded me of the fact that I was still that _thing_. That all of this was my fault. That Spark truly had never really existed.

That he was fake, like most of the things I had ever said about myself for the last few months. That no matter how much I pretended, he was going to stay fake. That no matter how much I hoped, everything would collapse all around me when given opportunity.

So when I found myself staring at him staring down at a river, probably about to do what I thought he was about to do; I ran towards him, not wanting him to jump in before I could do anything. He eventually noticed my presence, and turned to face me.

"Spark… please… I'm just on a walk, that's all… yeah that's… that's all…"

I tried to slowly approach him, speaking as Spark. "Look, I… I know this week has been tough, but you… you can't do this… you can't…"

My body continued trying to inch closer and closer without him noticing, but eventually, he caught on. "Don't get any closer! I… I will… I will do it! I… I will!"

His voice was extremely shaky, but I was not about to take any chances here, leaving me stuck dead in my tracks as we both were silent. We both stared at each other for a while, waiting for the first one to do something. If anything, this was my fault for lying to him about this in the first place.

And once again, I had hurt someone. And once again, I had done the exact opposite of what I wanted to do. And once again, I was that _thing._

I tried to say something while staying still, as to not make him think I was going to try to rush towards him to hold him down. "Please, Dunsparce, just… come back with me to the camp. We can do whatever you want, I don't care," I got down into a pleading position, not wanting to lose him. "Just please! Don't do this! Please!"

He was not moving, no matter what I said, leaving me to try to plea further. "Please, would Emolga want you to do this! Would she?"

I could feel the tears falling off my face, hating that I had let this happen. I should have left him back at the Paradise, and got him help, not dragged him along with me out of pity. It was obvious from the get go he was in a much worse state about losing Emolga than I ever was about losing Riley, at least, compared to him before. As much as getting revenge sounded like a good way of helping him out of this rut, I slowly realized that was me talking and not Spark talking when I said that. That after all of this, that was me imposing how I had dealt with myself badly over the years onto him.

Spark would never say that. I would say that. That _thing_ would say that.

Everything else I had done was fake, but the words and the tears that I was saying here were real. Real as day.

But it was not enough.

"You don't know what she thinks… you don't…" he spoke with a certainty in his voice that I had never seen before.

"Because… because I know you lied."

I froze. He knew.

He knew that he had been played.

"I… I have known her for much longer than… than you ever have. And I know she… she wouldn't say that..." His voice had this undertone of betrayal in it, one directed at me, "and yet, here you are… telling me she did…" he slowly started to turn around to face the water, looking down at it, contemplating, "here you are… lying… lying as if you never cared…"

I wanted to say something so badly, yet I could not bring my mouth to move at all.

"Do you even… even see me as… as someone? Or am I just something you… you say words to in order to get a… a… a certain reaction? Is… is that… is that it? Is that… is that all I am to you?"

Every word he threw my way hurt so, so much more than the last. I should have just told him the truth, and not tried to pretend I knew what she would have said. This was my fault, in more ways then just that lie. I had treated him like something I felt pity for, not like a friend, like I had been treating Riley and Emolga as.

Everything that was happening right now was my and my fault alone, and I was certain about that.

He continued speaking, cutting deeper and deeper. "So, if I'm not someone to you then… then what am I? Am I just something you… you just say things to… and don't actually care about? You didn't even… even say anything when you… you saw how badly I reacted to that thing you told me. Did you ever… ever really care?"

Did I? Now thinking about it, did I ever? Did I?

Did I ever really care?

As much as I wanted to say yes, I knew that would be a lie. If anything, I had treated him more as if he was a liability, like when I almost screamed when he did not show up on time; constantly talking down about him, acting like I needed to treat him like a small helpless kit or something. Did I ever really care about him in a friend to friend sort of way?

How big of a monster was I to him? How blind had I been?

"So, if… if you don't… don't care… and Emolga is… is… is _gone_ ," he got visibly caught up on the last word, much to his apparent chagrin, "then… who… who do I have? Who… who actually… actually cares? I… I thought that would be… would be you… but… here we are. Is… is the answer no one?"

I still could not formulate any words, with me being unable to handle the situation. But that did not stop him. "If the… the answer is… is no one, then… then what is the point? Is there one? I'm sorry… but… I don't… don't think there is…"

His eyes gleamed downwards towards the grass, leaving me there unknowing what to say. "I'm… I'm sorry, but I know there isn't one… I know it. There… there is no escape…"

"There never was any escape, was there… I could only hope…"

He turned back towards the river, as I found myself still stuck in place, unable to do anything. When I saw him start to move towards it though, I finally found myself able to speak.

"Please…" I was sobbing, only able to get bits and pieces of words out, "don't do this…"

I saw him look back at me, seeing the state I was in. He said one last thing before turning back.

"If you… you do find Emolga… tell her… tell her…"

"tell her… I'll… I'll always miss her."

"goodbye."

The crashing, rapid currents swallowed him whole before I could do anything, leaving me standing there, staring at where Dunsparce had been moments prior.

"No…"

I got down, facing the ground, unable to take it anymore. He was gone.

"No… no… no…"

He was gone, like Emolga. He was gone forever. Everybody was vanishing.

"No, no, no…"

Where were they going? Away? Did they hate me that much?

Why did everything have to collapse all around me? Why?

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…"

It hurt so, so, so much, and I knew it was never going to end. I slowly stopped seeing everything all around me, yet I did not care. If anything, I did not care about anything anymore.

I did not care, because he was gone, forever.

I did not care because he was gone, forever. All because of me. All because of that _thing._

I was that _thing_ after all. As much as I treated it like it was something distinct, it was me.

And it hurt, being that _thing_.

It hurt, being that _thing_ , so, so much.

But if there was one thing I knew, is that it would never end.

It would only go down, down, and down.

Endlessly downwards.

Because it will never truly end.

It never does.

…

…

…

But eventually, it did end.

When I woke up, with the same stars I fell asleep to still shining high above me, I could not stop a sigh of relief coming out of my mouth. Thankfully, it had all just been another nightmare, albeit an especially bad one this time.

An extremely bad one, but just another one, as usual. But, even thought it was only just another nightmare, it left me thinking. Thinking about him.

Sighing, I walked towards my bag to get something I desperately needed right now, before crouching downwards into it and starting to look for something. Pushing things aside haphazardly, disregarding the slight amount of organization I did put into packing for this trip, my hands eventually found themselves holding a very familiar picture.

The one of Riley. The one that had kick-started all of this.

The one that was the genesis for all of this. All the horrible atrocities and actions that had taken place against everyone I knew over the last several days. Lillipup getting kidnapped. Emolga getting kidnapped. All of them. All, from one singular picture.

And here I was, holding it. Holding it, and never letting go. Like I promised all that time ago, during that fateful day.

Not letting go. Letting it continue to sting. Making this bigger then it ever needed to be. Holding up a promise that even Hydreigon never wanted me to have. Hunting after someone I was not even supposed to remember. Finding myself haunted by nightmares near constantly and watching as everything collapsed all around me.

All of those thing were a result of me keeping this image. Had I given it back to that Snivy, I am almost positive no one would have gotten hurt. Dunsparce would not be as down as he was right now; possibly even on the brink of… brink of… It was just a nightmare, I need to remember that, despite how much it hurt. No matter how I put it, it still hurt to think about what had happened near that river in that dream. And it hurt even more to think about how there was a distinct possibility he might be that far gone, no matter how much I denied it as just being another nightmare. For all I knew, it could be another one of those really weird ones… the ones that seemed to have some validity to them. It was that possibility that was the reason why I did not want to delay trying to get Emolga back by any stretch of time.

Throughout all of this, I found myself looking back up from the image to Dunsparce in the camp, him still asleep from last night. I already knew he would be up soon, and that we would be off to Scarlet City, more then likely reaching it today. And then, I would have to do something I was not sure I wanted to do.

Feeling a few tears come down the side of my face, I put the image down, before wiping them off. As much as I hated what I was planning on doing to fix all of this, I knew it had to be done. All I could do was hope for one, singularly thing.

That you would forgive me for what I needed to do. That you would keep the memories alive.

That you would remember, for all of us.

Because it was time to let go.

 _Snivy's POV_

As I continued running, I realized how much of a joke this entire situation really was.

Because, in being honest, this entire situation honestly might have been funny for someone outside looking in. Here was someone, someone who went out to find someone else, only to lose two others in the process, and then finding herself trying to hide when she had been actively searching all the rest of the time. It honestly might have been funny; if the definition of something being 'funny' was that it was constantly gnawing at your heart, making you start to feel like a honest to arceus monster who only caused more to die than ever needed to. Because, if that was the definition of something being funny, then yeah, this entire situation was pretty funny.

No, not funny, that does not give the situation enough merit. It was hilarious. Everything that had happened was so, so hilarious.

It was so hilarious, that it felt like the last punchline in a comedy skit that someone had been waiting to go to for months and had bought a ticket even longer in advance for, with them slowly waiting and waiting for that final line to be said and for all those months of waiting to pay off in that one, big, final, hilarious, joke. Of course, that was only an analogy, and they can only get so close to reality, but still, that did not stop all of this from being hilarious.

It did not stop me from thinking of this situation as being so, so hilarious. So hilarious, that I forgot to laugh.

So hilarious, because of the fact that I knew me dying was going to be that final punchline in this grand old comedy skit, with Pansear and Tyrunt biting the dust before me presumably being the lead up jokes in this metaphorical comedy skit. This was all so, so hilarious because I knew as much as I ran away from that… that 'thing' that I refuse to refer to as a living being would catch up to me and end my existence. This was all hilarious, because I knew I could not fight the thing that managed to beat Tyrunt, someone who was much stronger then I ever could be. The best I could do would be hold it off, and even then, for who would I do that?

If anything, this was all one big, giant, hilarious joke that was coming to its final conclusion very fast, with or without my approval, as if it even cares. One, giant, big joke that I could only hold off by doing the one thing I managed to do good this week; running away from my problems.

Of course, I had not been constantly running. That was impossible. But I knew, every second I was not running, was another second she got closer to mauling me to death like I saw her do to Tyrunt and presumably Pansear as well. Every moment I spent waiting was one less moment I had to live in this giant joke of a situation I was involved in right now. For all I knew, she was watching me run and laughing along with it.

Maybe she was the one finding this all hilarious, laughing as I tried to run away before she eventually decided enough was enough and ended me. Maybe she was watching me right now, just watching and waiting. Maybe to her, this was all one big joke.

Maybe. In being honest, it was probable. But that was not hilarious, not even in the slightest.

And that was when this entire chain of thoughts of mine stopped being so funny. It was not funny, it was just sadistic. It did not even deserve a chuckle.

It was just sad. Sad, sad, and sad. Like this entire marathon I must have run at this point, although without the whole no stopping part. It was just really sad.

All I was doing was slowly going a bit stir crazy as I kept on running down this endless, endless road. This endless road that that Zoroark could pop out of any time. If anything, I was overestimating how much time I had to live, considering how determined she seemed when I first saw her back in Scarlet City. There was a basically zero percent chance that I would get out of this alive.

But, of course, I could never truly give up. Because no matter how hard I tried, it never truly worked. So, despite my efforts, here I was, still running and living. Was it because of the final things Tyrunt told me to do, or was it because of some inherent sense of self-preservation I did not know I had? Was it because I wanted to bathe in the hilarity of the entire situation I found myself in for just a bit longer, or was it because I wanted to prevent her from reaching her goal for as long as I possibly could? In being honest, I did not know, nor could even begin to know how to figure out which one made more sense then the others. All of them were true, to a certain extent, but none were the real reason. The real reason still eluded me.

The real reason that caused me to not stop running all the way back there. The real reason that taunted me so much. The real reason that caused me to not stop running.

The real reason that would only truly find its way back into my mind when I found myself running into a more open area in the wood; the small pathway slowly turning into a giant encompassing field. A field that reminded me of something I never thought I would ever think about again, or at least, since Scarlet City.

Something I had almost forgotten in the madness. Something I promised I would keep my main goal, yet I had forget. Something very, very important to me.

Someone I had known, for a long, long time. Someone I could never truly forget, no matter the circumstances.

It was there, while I looked out the field; admittedly simple but still beautiful in its own right, with it only having dash of flowers here and there, a big boulder there, but none of that really mattered. No, what mattered to me was the context, the memories. The memories that it brought from previously the back of my head to the front: The memories of the good old times; the times where I could run through fields, without any fear of losing _you_ ; the times back when I thought _you_ would never disappear, where _you_ would never fade away, out of my life, until _you_ truly vanished.

As I watched the ripples blow throughout the grass, waves billowing throughout the hills; where I realized why I had been running this entire time. Why I never stopped.

It was not because of any feelings of vengeance I had towards that Zoroark, although I did feel that. It was also not because I wanted to live another day to get revenge on that Pikachu that ruined this entire situation, although I still hated him with a passion. It was also not any sort of self-denial that this had happened and that there was a chance that Pansear and Tyrunt were still alive, although if there were, I sure would not complain. Nor was it even any intrinsic sense of self-preservation I had about myself, if I even had any left at this point.

No, it was none of those reasons, and I knew it. Taking one last glance throughout the meadow, to visualize it, I slowly pulled out the journal I had not touched since we had made it to that Pikachu's little place up north, the one that was so hard to locate and lead of all of this. Quickly unlocking it with the key I had grabbed out of the bag a few days back, I looked through the first few pages, seeing the writing less and less scraggly written as I looked through more and more of them; taking in all the contents, all the memories.

It was because of _you_ , that I never stopped running.

I never stopped, because of _you_. I never stopped, because _you_ were everything to me. I never stopped, because I always wanted to have _you_ back _._ Because _you_ were the only one I had left.

Closing my eyes, in a attempt to hold back a few tears that were forming, I quickly locked and put the journal back away, before closing the bag and quickly wiping my face. Taking one last look at the field, I started to run again, but this time, without any plans on stopping anytime soon.

This time, with _you_ in mind, first and foremost.

It was with that new found motivation, that I ran yet again, not hating myself as I did it but now wanting to have _you_ back. I ran, ran, and ran. Ran past the fields, ran past the endless trees, ran past the endless looping hills, past everything.

And this time, running did feel like living.

 _Riley's POV_

As I found myself cornered in the room, with a Staraptor ready to attack me at any moments notice constantly looking at me from its perch on the bed, I found myself on edge trying to figure out how I could possibly get out of this.

Breathing heavily, my eyes scanned around for any possible means of escape. I briefly considered the door, before it dawned on me how it was too far away for me to ever reach it before the bird had a chance to hit me, and anything else I could reasonably use to defend myself was too far away. If only Hex was still he-

Wait a minute, Hex. I found myself quickly looking to the side of me towards the bag and seeing a very familiar red gleam coming off of the bag; Drilbur's poké ball. There was a chance I could confuse it enough to the point where I could possibly get to Drilbur's poké ball before it had a chance to react.

It was a long shot, but I had to try. So, after taking a deep breath, I said, "Hey, you there! Please, just let me go!"

It stared at me, slightly tilting its head, before saying, "Humph, that was extremely fast. To think, he's already out of his mind, begging at something he can't even he-"

"But I can."

The bird's earlier smug attitude vanished as I said that sentence, leaving it only staring at me bewildered. I knew this was going to be hard to pull off, but if I could do it, I could possibly get out of this. It was a slight chance, but a chance.

A chance that I had to take.

Eventually, after much deliberation on what to say next, I continued. "Listen, I just hear everything you just said, all of it. From me being crazy to how fast I had became crazy, I heard it all."

It stared at me, with its eyes as big as saucers. The plan was working, but I had to keep it up, otherwise I could not get it confused enough where it hesitated for long enough to let me get Drilbur's poké ball. But of course, it was also then when I heard the distinctive sound of thumping.

The pristine sound of whoever was beaming those lights into the house earlier when I opened the shades trying to get to me.

Now under a time limit, I quickly added to my last statement. "Who are you, anyways, since I've told you so much about myself. Why are you here?"

The bird was starting to be on edge, its eyes fluttering about and him not knowing what to say. Eventually, fragments of words came out of his mouth. "U-uh… this isn't…"

I pushed harder, trying to break them. "Isn't what? Isn't normal? Well, kidnapping people isn't normal either, is it? What you're doing right now is not normal, is it?"

The thumping got continually louder and louder from downstairs, putting me more and more on edge with every continued thump against the door. I had to be fast about this.

Now breathing heavily, and knowing that they would probably get through the door I locked behind me more likely sooner rather than later, I quickly thought about the next line, the next line that I needed to break him with. The next line I could not have more then a minute left to say before they broke in. The next line I had to be fast about.

"Tell me, why do you let yourself be surrounded by people who don't call you normal every day? Tell me, why do you let that happen? Tell me, why do you let yourself be a slave _._ "

That was the line that broke them, with him covering his eyes with his wings in some sort of mental breakdown. The next thing I was about to have to do would be sad, but it had to be done.

Quickly, I lunged to the side before the Staraptor could react, with him more then likely not even hearing me until soon after my hands had already grabbed Drilbur's poké ball. He tried to quickly descend on me from the bed, but it was far too little to late, as I had already released Drilbur from his ball.

And once he came out, I gave him one, solitary command.

"Slash. Aim for the wing."

The results were quick, and brutal, with him hitting the exposed Staraptor's wing dead on; leaving a long gash along the entire thing. It was not enough to take it down completely, but it grounded it and caused it to start crying out in pain, unable to move. Back when I had been in the pokémon world, I had learned that aiming for the wings of birds did a decent job at grounding them, due to the lack of protection they had due to it being the main thing that let them fly.

This Staraptor was evidently no different, with it crying and repeatedly saying in a mantra. "It… it hurts."

Finding myself on edge with the increasing background noise of thumping against the front door, I quickly said, "Drilbur, let's finish it. Use metal claw."

"No… don't, please…" I heard the bird quietly say, as Drilbur's claws became covered in white energy, before being slashed across the bird's chest, knocking it out. And it was then that the bird finally fell unconscious, letting me for a singular moment celebrate my victory over it.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, I heard the front door crash open, tromping footsteps pouring out of it.

That was when any happiness I felt from escaping that one situation vanished, as I found myself rushing to hide from one much larger one.

Quickly returning Drilbur to his poké ball, promising myself I would explain all of this to him later when we were safe, I put the ball in the bag before shoving the entire bag underneath the bed as fast as possible. I then very quickly kicked the door open, hoping to psyche them out and make them think I ran out of the room, before rolling underneath the bed and trying to be as silent as possible.

All the pieces had been set, and all I could do was see if they worked. All I could do was hope.

Eventually, after a few seconds, I heard someone enter the room with their boots making a loud tromping sound whenever they hit the floor. After a little while, I heard that same person start to speak in what I could only guess was a radio based on how he talked.

I heard his footsteps approach the foot of the bed, scaring me for a moment before I realized that was where the bird laid. "Repeat, the bird is… oh what in Arceus' holy name."

A slight tinge of regret made itself evident as I heard the guy say that sentence, making me slightly regret how brutal I had been. It was a life and death situation, so I did what I had to do, whether they were considered underhanded or not. I just hoped Drilbur would forgive me later for making him do that.

I hoped, anyways.

Eventually, he started moving again, saying into his radio, "Besides the presence of the unconscious bird, he does not seem to be present in this room, as of now anyways, with the door having been kicked open when we arrived. He has to be somewh-"

"What? What do you mean you need assistance down there? But I ju- fine, I'll be over shortly."

Hearing him grunt all the way over from under the bed, I heard his boots tromp against the carpet until he finally reached the door; him closing it behind him with a loud noise more then likely to make sure I did not get back in here without anyone noticing. It was then, after I was sure no one was about to burst back into the room, that I knew it was time to try to get out. Whatever that thing they needed assistance with down on the road, I knew I needed to take advantage of it and get out. If I waited, then someone would eventually look under the bed and get me. It was either now or never.

And out of those two options, I decided on now.

Noticing immediately that all the search lights were not focused on the room anymore as I got out from under the bed, I pulled the bag out. Taking one last moment to make sure no one was approaching the door, I started to move towards the window as quietly as possible. When I reached it, I peeped over the side of it to see what they were being distracted by in the first place.

But, instead of seeing them being stopped by the police or even some unusually strong feral pokémon, I instead saw them being harrowed by someone I thought I would not see for a long, long time.

I saw Hex, trying to fight his way towards the van for whatever reason. They would be too distracted to even notice me getting away. But did I want to do that to him?

And it was at that moment, that moment I got down back fully on the ground after climbing out of the window, that moment I could have ran off and tried to get as far as possible away from Unova, out of fear of these people, that moment I could of done all of these things, I did not. He was not going to win the fight I saw he had gotten into, and I needed to help him.

I did not know how, but I knew I needed to; I could not just leave him tere.

And so, on that harsh night following a giant snowstorm, with me having every opportunity to run away and get out of this, that I charged head first into the situation.

But I did not stop, because I knew one thing. One, clear as day thing.

That I had to do this, for him. For whatever he was hiding. For whatever he was afraid of.

For the truth.

Everything collapsed into calamity as I ran into the center of the madness.

 _Spark's POV_

As I found myself walking along the heavily forested path, not far from the end goal of this trip I found myself on, I found myself thinking.

Thinking about that lingering dread I had about Dunsparce that I woke up with and never truly found myself able to get out of my mind; the one that I felt whenever I saw Dunsparce as he walked along the path, just as down as he was yesterday. The feeling I could only blame myself about.

I do not think I could really blame anybody but myself after that dream last night, no matter how real the contents of it really were. Every part of me hated the fact that I did not say anything, but I needed to keep up the facade, as long as possible. No matter how much I did not want to baby him, I had no choice here.

In a situation like this, I needed him to not be questioning my sincerity. If we encountered them in Scarlet City and my other plan did not work, we would need as much power as we could muster up. Even with Dunsparce still trusting me, we barely had a shot at that, so I could not dishearten him now when I needed him up.

I still question why this all had to happen. I really do. But, it is what it is. Life goes on, I suppose.

Sighing, I snapped back out of my thoughts and took a look around the area. Dunsparce was still beside me. Trees had overtaken the previously clear sides of the path as we went past the crossroads a couple hours back, before we found ourselves where we are now. Like most of the road before, it was broken and busted, slowly disintegrating with lack of maintenance or something of the sort. It had been obvious no one had been here in a long time.

I guess they just never came back, after all that time. Figures. It is almost funny, really.

Either way, it made sense why they would come here. No one in Post Town would ever think to go to a abandoned town this far away. If anything, I could only imagine what terrible things they had done to her as we trekked and trekked all the way up here; if only we could have been faster.

And in being honest, there was always the chance that she… she was dead…

I silently shook my head stuck in my own personal agony, trying to get thoughts of last night out of my mind. I could not be like that pessimistic anymore, after going through that nightmare and seeing Dunsparce in his worst possible state. If she was gone, I knew he was going to go down with her. I needed to not think of stuff like that anymore, lest that _thing_ get out any more.

That _thing._ That _thing_ I hated so much. Why did I have to be that _thing_ , and not Spark. Why did that _thing_ have to constantly taunt me, reminding me it is there. Why could it not just go away already.

Either way, all I could do was hope, and try to pretend that… _that_ was not even a remote possibility, and that I was overreacting to all of this, as usual. All I could do was play pretend as I walked in these woods. Otherwise, I might be alone again, both Dunsparce and Emolga gone, forever.

That fear of being truly alone again. That fear, that haunted me constantly.

It was that fear that made me feel like I needed to consider something, something I never thought I would consider after what happened. Something I very desperately did not want to have to do.

But something I needed to do, for everyone.

So, when I saw the gates of that infamous town that had been clawing at the back of my mind all this time, I tried to spend the last few moments in peace. The few last moments everything would still be semi-normal.

The last few moments I would still have you, even if you were not here. The last few moments before I had to give you, up, for good.

Taking a second to look back down at the image, and holding back tears, I continued to march forward.

Soon, it would all be over: the memories of our journey; the memories of you; all of it. Soon, it would all be dust scattered in the wind, unable to ever be reassembled back together, if what Emolga said was true. And in knowing my luck, it had to be.

Soon, it would all end, and nobody would remember Riley besides that Snivy, whatever association she had with him.

All I could do was hope. Hope that Emolga was wrong about the fact that we would all forget, as I walked towards the infamous town looming in front of us. Hope that this was all going to end well for once. Just hope.

Either way, I knew. I knew it was time to face destiny.

For both him, and for everyone.

…

…

…

Or, at least, I thought it was time.

As I continued walking towards the gate, thinking it was time for me to finally let go of both him and the image, I heard a very distinctive buzzing sound. One I could never forget the origin of, no matter how hard I tried. One that scared me more then that Snivy ever could.

One that made me break out into a instant run, fearing what would happen if I did not. One that made me want to scream, for becoming so complacent towards this.

One thing that made me run as fast as possible, because if I did not.

I would not be able to run any more.

All I could hope for was that Dunsparce would forgive me, after all of this was said and done.

All I could do was hope.

 _Snivy's POV_

Eventually, after endless amounts of running, I finally got out of the seemingly unending rows and rows of trees lining the path. As the trees cleared away and the dirt path transitioned into an actual path, as I saw battered and ruined buildings come into view as I walked forward.

All it was was only another abandoned and broken down town, much like Scarlet City was before it burned, if it even had. Eventually, I found a small sign at the corner of the pathway leading in to the town, presumably for visitors before the place had been abandoned, with the only legible thing on it being. "Welcome to Aurora Town! The small homely town of the north!"

In being honest, all it was was just another broken down place; nothing to marvel at. Yet, I found myself wandering through it, looking at all the dilapidated buildings in all their glory. The place looked like it had been looted several times over, with damage to the walls and the place in general being evident as I walked through it. It was somber, really, seeing how badly the place had been damaged.

It almost looked as though there had been some major fighting here, although I have absolutely no idea why such a small town would look as war-torn as this one did. It did not have the same cleanliness Scarlet City had despite being abandoned, the walls and roofs only looking degraded by time rather then by force. If I had not been trying to get away from a bunch of pokémon hunting me down, I might have wanted to see if I could figure out what happened to the place.

Unfortunately, I was not gonna get that chance. For all I knew, it might have helped in figuring out where Riley disappeared to, since this was quite close to the north, but that would have to wait.

Quickly finding myself back on the major pathway leading to the beach, I started following it, feeling more and more unsafe every second I spent laundering around the town main. For now, I just had to get out of this town, and find somewhere seclusive a little bit away from it to hide. All I needed to do was get them off of my tracks, and then figure out what I needed to do from there. Tyrunt and Pansear might be gone, but that was not going to sto-

As I turned the corner, I found myself in disbelief as to who I was looking at. It was him.

It was Pansear. There he was.

I dropped everything I was thinking about and started running towards the red blob going by the name of Pansear situated on the far side of the beach. I could not get over the fact that I had actually found him, with his disappearance in the woods seeming to be a result of that monster that killed Tyrunt, but here he was.

Here he was; against all odds. I found him here, and if there was any chance he was alive, I needed to help him. For all I knew, he was on the brink of death.

When I finally approached him, it became quickly evident he was out cold. Scared out of my mind that he could very well be dead, and not knowing what else to do in a situation like this, I quickly got out an emergency oran berry I had stored in my small bag, before I started shaking him rapidly, hoping to wake him up.

Throughout all of this, I muttered phrases under my breath, hoping I was not about to witness another tragedy. Hoping this week was not about get even more sour.

"Come on… wake up. Wake up, please. Don't go…"

"Please, don't go. Please, don't go..."

"Please…"

But after a while, something became very, very clear. He was not waking up.

I had my hopes up for one moment, and then they came crashing down as usual. It was funny, hilarious even. This entire situation was hilarious. Everything I had went through was hilarious. The fact that both Tyrunt and now Pansear were gone was hilarious. All of this was hilarious.

All of this was so hilarious that I forgot to laugh, and instead was crying tears of laughter. Yeah, tears of laughter. Tears of laughter..

Why was I running? Was it really for _you_ , or was that my petty way of trying to justify my own tendency to keep on going in a situation that was pointless. Was this the world's way of telling me to stop trying already, to just give up. Was it?

Was it really? Was there no point? Was I just making it up to justify my own actions?

Growing increasing angry, I flung one of the rocks on the beach with my vines, needing to take this anger I felt out on something. But, no matter how I felt, there was one certainty.

He was not getting up.

I kept on angrily attacking rocks, branches of trees; anything I could see was victimized by my assault on the beach. All the stupid self-justifications I had made for myself felt null, void, insulting, even.

So, it was then, after my tantrum calmed down, and I found myself with my head facing the ground while laying against a local tree that had been victimized in my assault on the beach earlier, that I heard movement.

Movement that I thought at first belonged to that monster herself, Achlys. Movement that honestly did not scare me anymore, because I had lost all will to run. Movement that I could hear slowly walk towards me from the beach, as I waited for it all to end. Movement that would soon be my end, but I did not care enough to stop. I did not care about anything anymore, with me just wanting this giant nightmare to end already. Movement that made me think about some thing I had tried to keep out of my mind while I was stilling running. Things like whether in the end this was all worth it. Questions like whether I should have ever ran at all.

Questions I knew I would never know the true answer of as I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable. I waited, waited, and waited. She had to have been enjoying this or something, considering how long she was waiting. Probably soaking it all up before she went for the kill. Probably finding it funny.

But eventually, I heard a voice I did not think I would hear again, a voice that reminded me why I had been running. A voice I desperately needed to hear.

A voice that said very bluntly, "Do you… do you really think a stupid little river is all it takes to stop me? Wow, I didn't realize you held me in such a low regard. In being serious though, are you okay?"

I quickly opened my eyes, almost expecting to see it was Achlys imitating his voice, but instead, I was greeted with him himself. He was here.

He was alive.

The first thing I did was run at him and hugged him as hard as I could, with me being grateful that I at least had him still here. Grateful at least he was not gone after all of this. Grateful that I still had someone.

Grateful he was not gone when I had seen so many others gone.

"Please, don't ever do that again," I backed up away from here, giving him some distance before saying, "It's just been a long last few days, don't mind me."

Hearing him sigh, he said, "Either way, we should probably get a move on if… wait."

"Snivy, can you hear that noise too? This isn't just me, right?"

At first I wondered what in the world he was going on about, but then I started to hear the slightest tinge of it. It was there, but extremely muted and quiet.

"heh… heh… heh…"

Under the crashing sound of beach waves, and noises from the woods, I could hear the distinctive chuckling. A chuckling that seemed to eat away at everything it touched. A chuckling that seemed to come from everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time. A chuckling that killed any joy I had just felt.

A chuckling that had me on the absolute edge.

"hehehehehe."

Both Pansear and I found ourselves rapidly looking around, trying to locate where the laughing was originating from. Perhaps it was originating from… oh no.

"hehehehehe."

It had to be her. It was the monster herself; Achlys. Trying to find her, I kept on looking around, until I finally saw a black canine turn the corner leading into the beach, her attention solely on us as she walked forward slowly, more then likely savoring every moment of this.

She had found us.

"Hehehehehe."

I knew I had to act fast. Perhaps I could save one of us.

Not knowing what else to do, I threw my bag at Pansear and said, "Run! I'll hold her off! Just get somewhere safe!"

"B-bu-"

"Hehehehehe."

"But you'll die! I could never forgive myself for d-"

I interrupted him. "Please, just go! Stop trying to be the considerate one, and save yourself for once! I'll get out of this somehow, I swear! Just run for your life! Please!"

He hesitantly picked up the bag, before saying, "B-bu-"

"Hehehehehe!"

"But you'll j-"

Seeing her rapidly closing distance between us, I quickly said, "Please! I don't care! Just save yourself! Go already!"

"But what a-"

"Hehehehehe!"

"Just do it! Please! Find them! Fix all of this! For both of them! For everyone!"

And it was at that moment that I urged him on with the last part of that sentence, when he started running far away from where he once stood, as the monster finally reached her destination. I did not know where he was going to go, but I hoped it was far away enough that Achlys would never find him.

But, unfortunately, the monster had caught up to where I was. The monster that had killed Tyrunt without any remorse. The monster that was now staring at me, ready to do to me what she did to Tyrunt.

The monster that was ready to make me stop running, forever.

There was a unspoken silence between us for a few moments, one that I tried to prolong as along as possible. I knew he needed as much as he could get, so any extra seconds I could get him would help.

But eventually, I heard her break the silence.

"Hehehehe… so, look who I've found. It's that little Snivy that ran far, far away. But not far enough." I heard her slowly start to chuckle, more than likely reveling in this moment. "You have no idea how much I wish I could just tear you to shreds right now."

She slowly started walking towards me, prompting me to get my vines out, before stopping a bit away. "But, sadly, I have something much more productive to do then tear you to shreds. Something much more important then you ever could be to me. So, stand aside, and let me go through, before I make you."

Shaking my head, I said, "You think I'm just gonna let you through, after all of this? You're just gonna come for me next, so why wait? Come get me here and now, while I'm standing right in front of you."

She slightly chuckled. "I don't have time for your little shenanigans, I'll just have to do this the hard way, then."

It was then, when I saw her form become bathed in a white light, that I knew what was happening. Slowly, her form shrank, before It became clear into what she had transformed into.

It was a Pansear. A Pansear for the sole purpose of taunting me. Of course she had to taunt me like that, of course.

Disregarding her choice, I steeled myself in, getting ready for any possible attack to be thrown my way. And when it eventually did.

I knew. I knew I had to do this. I knew I had to hold her off a long as possible.

For both _you_ , and for them. For all of them.

Quickly dodging to the side, I watched as what could very possibly be the final fight I ever had begin in front of me.

And in that, I remembered one thing I was told once, a long time ago. That for there to be order, there must first be disorder. That for there to be justice, there must first be injustice.

All I hoped was that there was some truth in that statement, some truth that would show itself as disorder descended upon the beach that evening. But if there was one thing I did know, it was that the time for running was over.

Now, it was time to stand, and fight.

For madness was already here.

* * *

 _…_

 _Uh… hello? Someone? Anyone?_

 _…_

 _Is anyone there?_

 _Can you please say something? I can't hear anything if you're speaking?_

 _Hello?_

 _…_

 _Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no…_

 _Someone, anyone, please? Can you please say something?_

 _Please, anybody? Is anybody there?_

 _No, it… it can't. I can't. Please, no._

 _Please, please no. Please someone, anyone, say something!_

 _Please! Anyone, please!_

 _Please, say something!_

 _Please!_

 _I-I can't… I can't be…_

 _I-I can't be all alone, can I?_

 _Someone, anyone, say something, please! Just say something!_

 _Please!_

 _someone, please!_

 _please… someone…_

 _anyone… please…_

 _please..._

…

…

…

 _please, don't leave me alone here…_

 _please…_


	11. Chapter 9: Falling

...

* * *

 _Chapter 9: Falling_

* * *

…

 _Why… why…_

 _Everything was silent_ _, dead silent_ _… I wanted something different to happen so badly, until…_

 _These colors, these muted colors… these colors keeping me trapped behind closed doors…_

 _Until these muted colors started screaming so, so loudly._

 _They hurt… They hurt, so, so much…_

* * *

 _Riley's POV_

The entire scene around me devolved into one giant rioting mess as I tried to find Hex in the crowd of pokémon.

As I looked out around the madness taking place around me, I saw something up in the sky. A bird, with the intent to kill, coming straight at me from the sky. I barely got out of the way as it crashed into one of the house's glass windows behind me, shattering it into a hundred little pieces. Now breathing heavily and constantly darting my eyes around the entire area; I did the thing most sane people would.

I ran as fast as possible, distancing myself from the window.

As I rushed out, I looked around onto the rest of the road for the sake of finding direction. The entire scene playing out in front of me was one of pure madness: most pokémon that once seemed dead-set on finding me now confused as to who their target was anymore, with them all being engaged in one giant brawl.

To most, it would have been horrific. Not to me though. All that mattered right now was finding Hex and getting out as fast as possible. To make everything right again.

Hearing the flapping of bird wings, I was reminded that he was not gone yet. Quickly ducking again, I watched as it found itself ramming into what had formerly been a semi-complacent Electrode. Not bothering to watch the butchering that was about to take place, I scurried further into the center of the road, dodging attacks not aimed at me as they came along.

A slash here, a water gun here, stuff like that. I was in a situation that would usually scare most people, but not me.

Not after what I had gone through. Not after that.

All around me, I heard various things being shouted between pokémon, stuff like: "He… he isn't one of us! Stop!" and "It's obvious you're the real traitor, thinking that those others are sane!" If anything, Hex attacking seemed like it started some mass mutiny of some sort.

But, it did not bother me. If anything, it just made my mission easier. At least, until one remembered its goal. A singular, angry Blitzle that almost made my face their punching bag. Barely dodging its headbutt, I pulled out Drilbur's poké ball and sent him out, his eyes slightly widening at all the violence. To think, what must had been going through his mind right then.

All I did was command him, hoping I could explain all of this to him later. "Drilbur, please, use dig."

He quickly, although not as quickly as I would had liked, went underground. Meanwhile, I found myself face to face with the same angry Blitzle as I tried to back up, before it did something I did not expect. As I tried to rapidly backtrack, I saw its head swivel to the side, before its horn lighted up and then grazed me clear across the chest; taking with it a fair amount of blood that dispersed itself along the street. I found myself in pain as I fell down on my knees, before Drilbur came straight through the concrete attacking Blitzle from underneath. By the time he did though, it was already too late.

I was losing blood rapidly, and could only stumble backwards as Drilbur and Blitzle found themselves parrying for life or death. I could not give out instructions, nor did it even seem like they would help him as I tried to not fall unconscious in the state I was in. Taking off my shirt, I wrapped it around the wound on my chest, in an attempt to prevent any excess bleeding.

Inevitably though, darkness eventually started to cover my vision as the two figures dancing around each other lost any clarity they once had. Darkness that left me thinking about things I had not thought about in a long time. Long lost thoughts and deeds.

There were a man, along with a little girl, looking at me from above. The sky was hazy, with rain coming down rapidly. They were saying words that could barely be made out in the rain.

" _Who… who are you?"_ one said, looking down.

" _Hello, are you there?"_ another said, her gripping something tightly in the rain. Something alive.

" _Can you… you say some—"_

It was just as I thought I was about to go completely out, the world becoming less and less there by the second, that a penetrating white light broke through the cover of black. I was brought back near fully into the realm of consciousness, as I refocused my attention on the battle in front of me.

Drilbur, who was previously sustaining hit after hit, now found himself covered in a white coating of light. His entire form started to grow, with his claws lengthening, along with his head taking on a more stretched out shape. His body grew along with the rest of his form, as it became much more sturdy and hardy. It was very obvious what had just happened.

He had managed to evolve, from a Drilbur to an Excadrill. I… could not let myself go just yet.

Not now, and at least, not until I got this wound treated. Not until Hex was safe, and everything was fine again.

He had not given up, so I could not either. No matter what.

The battle continued on, with Blitzle attempting to take the moment of confusion to hit him. Not taking it, Excadrill quickly slashed at the creature's front legs, disabling it momentarily as it backed away. Taking a look behind himself at me, disgust fuming at his face for what had been done, both his claws took on a silver glow. Blitzle found himself being rushed at as his form got barraged by two hard slashes Excadrill inflicted on it, hurting it immensely.

Seeing that it was fighting a losing battle, the horse ran off back into the crowd as Excadrill turned to face me.

Contending to myself for a minute, not wanting to sit around with this wound for much longer then I had to, I got myself back up. Silently nodding at Excadrill to tell him I was fine as he approached my location, I started walking over. We started moving towards where Hex was, right near the van itself.

Keeping myself together, I moved forwards, not looking back.

Not today, nor tomorrow.

And not ever again.

 _Spark's POV_

As the wind flew by, and the faces of a confused individuals lingered, I ran.

All I could think about was getting away, any other thoughts getting left behind in the nauseous cacophony of fear that consumed me. Breathing heavily, I pushed myself as fast as I could go, fearful of the consequences if I stayed put.

Fearful that I… I would… I could not think about that right now, I needed to focus. It was just another thing to them, and I needed to remember that.

All just another cog in the machine.

Pushing myself harder, I focused my eyes ahead. The path never seemed to end as the Flygon started his pursuit after me, a loud buzzing ringing in my ears. A ringing that never seemed to cease, acting as a constant reminder of that day.

That sad, sad day. That day I have tried to forget about for so long.

That day.

Seeing the forest rapidly evaporate, with it all opening up into the plains surrounding Scarlet City's eastern side, I found myself left with only one choice. Running faster. The entire area had taken on an aura of intensity, as I found myself repeating one thing as a mantra, seeing the gate to the city finally come near.

"Get away," I said repeatedly, under my breath, "I can't... I won't..."

"Never… never again…"

As I got closer to the gate, his approach was steadily increasing; the buzzing getting louder and louder. It got louder and louder, louder until I heard him lunging at me from above. I quickly jumped through the gate, barely missing his tackle and feeling the wind blow past my tail as he grabbed the air where I once was. As I landed and quickly glanced back, all I saw was a Flygon; a Flygon, with his claws buried deep into a ground, and his face painting a image of betrayal.

A false image, of course, but still an image.

Just another one of them playing make believe and expecting me to buy it.

Shaking my head, I focused my attention back on the road in front of me, pushing myself harder and harder to reach the center pole where Emolga should be. The entire town reeked of dilapidation around me as I ran, a result of age and lack of repair. Trying to get my mind off what the place once looked like, I finally came in view of the pole.

My entire form froze as I reached the pole. I could only mutter out parts of a sentence as a wave of fear washed over me.

"What..." I said, slightly disturbed as to the implication of her absence, "Where… where did she—"

Getting forcefully taken out of my trance when I heard another rapid increase in buzzing behind me, I reacted as quickly as possible. Barely managing to roll to the side in time, and not letting a moment be wasted in hesitation, I kept pushing myself to go faster, taking a turn onto the alleyway to the right. Emolga must had been moved by them, leaving me only to look for her manually.

But still… why would they do that. Was she…

Hesitating for a second, I started sprinting forward again, hearing the nauseating buzzing the entire way. As the houses flew past, all that seemed to exist was that constant buzz. That familiar, nauseating buzz. Detrimental to both my state of mind, and to my will to keep going.

But, in a way, I knew I had to, for him at least. Otherwise, everything I still had would collapse. Otherwise, that dream involving Dunsparce could become a reality.

And, no matter what happened, I was not going to let that happen to him. No matter what.

Even… even if the prospect of her not being there scared me to no end. What if she…

No, I could not let myself think about that. Besides, there was already so much tearing away at me from the surrounding area, that I could not add another thing onto that. So many memories, tearing away at me as I tried to keep it all together, while running away from this monster of a pokémon. Memories that found their place in the front of my mind; memories of a certain little Pichu, lost and running away in a city named after the color red. Memories that reminded me how sad it was, when looking back on how everything had turned out. How I found myself in this situation after fervently avoiding it for so long. How everything came crashing right at this exact moment.

How life managed to continue being what it was best at: dirty, and rotten. Something that spits in the face of everybody constantly.

Hearing the buzzing start to ring in my ears again, I made another rapid turn into one of the alleyways. My search was not going well, but that was to be expected, considering I was not able to get away from this Flygon. If they were here, which I was doubting, then they would not have hidden her in plain sight. Not after all the effort they went through, and doing that thing with kidnapping Lillipup.

Really though, were they even here? Surely they would had heard this commotion by now… right?

Taking a moment to consider the prospect, before chalking it up to bad luck, I continued to run. Eventually, I found myself on a very familiar street. One that was once the main center of this city. If anything, the now marred oaks of brown only served to make me feel worse about all of t his.

To think how long it had been since I was last here… how much time had it been, really?

If I had time and was not being chased, I would have tried to take in the surroundings after all this time. But of course, there was no time for that.

I had to keep on running. If not for Emolga, then for Riley, who would want me to keep going. If only he was here…

If only.

Sighing, I started running even faster then I had before, at the sight of Flygon starting to approach from behind. He was not going to get me…

I would not let him. Not after all I had been though. Not after all the things this had done to me over the years.

Not again.

As I ran, all I could imagine the same innocent Pichu at the time running in my place. The one that ran at the sight of the red. The curdling screaming streams of red. Red, basking the streets. Red, adorning the windows in place of curtains. Red, having been painted over the city in place of brown.

The red… all the red. All the endless red.

Red that I could not unsee to this day. Red that I would remember every time I-I… I…

I... I needed to focus, or else he would get me. I just needed to forget about this for the time being, and focus solely on the road ahead. Pushing forward, hearing an audible spike with the buzzing, I ran faster, going through alleyways and looking for any possible route for escape.

But there was no escape. There was none back then, and there was none now. No matter how far I, or that poor, poor Pichu ran, it would never be far enough. And I already knew that, having lived through that so long. After running to the north and hiding in plain sight, yet never being seen.

Had… had they found me?

Shoving the idea to the back of my head upon hearing louder buzzing, I pushed harder. I just barely managed to make it in the alleyway, as the Flygon tried to block my only route of escape forwards on the road.

I swear I could hear him shout, "Stop! Please!" as I ran farther.

That sick freak. Thinking he could manipulate me again? I would never let him have the opportunity.

Never.

Moving faster, I found myself on another broad avenue, taking the opportunity to get a head start. I was not moving without reason though, as I was slowly trying to make my way to the city outskirts, were the rivers laid.

The rivers that were near the edge of the town, with the bridge leading into the woods. That was my best option for escape.

My only option, really, other then cower and get finished off. And I had too many depending on me right now to just give up. I had to do this, no matter the cost.

I had to get out of this, alive.

For Dunsparce, and for Emolga.

And for Riley.

Running both through my past and whatever shell of a future I had, I knew something. I could never stop, not now, and not ever again.

I pushed forward, into the half-known sea of truths that surrounded everything around me.

For both myself back then, and myself now.

But… could I keep doing this forever?

 _Snivy's POV_

As the dust blew by, and the wind ceased, I saw the monster that attacked Tyrunt back in the woods tower over me. It was time for this to come to a close, even if I knew who would win.

I had to try, no matter what. And that was all that mattered.

In the aftermath of her missing, she had decidedly switched to the fire approach. As I got up, she prepared and launched a ball of fire straight at me, leaving me only trying to avoid it as I looked around the area for any means of retaliation. When the ball of flame missed and glanced off a nearby rock, I noticed a few loose rocks come off of it. I grabbed a few of them laying around on the beach with my vines before throwing them at her, only accomplishing two real things.

Making her madder, and leaving me open to attack. A opening she made very acute use of.

She quickly dashed at me, forcing me to prepare my vines and got ready to retaliate if it became necessary. What I was not ready for, was the ball of blaring red.

A bout of flame came rushing at me, one I almost did not react to in time. Quickly rolling to the side to try to avoid it, an odd sensation perked up on one of my vines. One of pain, and heat. One that I would almost start screaming at when I realized that my vine had gotten hit by the blast; the tip being lit and rapidly consuming it all in flames.

In an attempt to put it out, rapidly hitting it against the sand and the rocks, I forgot I was in the middle of a fight. A fact that I would only realize once I found myself within a few paces from her.

"Oh? Finding yourself distracted by a little flame? Well, let me help you with that." she said, hastily bringing my attention back up from the now put out flame.

"That got your attention? Well, time's up, little runt."

She rushed towards me, leaving me to only react based off of instinct. Futilely attempting to sweep her off her feet with one of my vines; I left myself open to get charged at as she coated herself in flames. She tackled me onto the ground, swiping at me and leaving gashes on my entire form. I tried to retaliate, grabbing a rock from the beach side and swiping it at her, but all it did was leave a tiny mark and a much more angry Achlys.

It was becoming very obvious this strategy was not working, nor anything I seemed to try. Breathing heavily, I tried to think of any possible way to save this situation I found myself in. Nothing seemed to pop up though, nothing until I looked right next to me while moving to the side to avoid a rapid series of slashes.

The water. Fire types had no power in the water. I had to go to the water.

She was weak to it, and I had a chance there. I had to at least try.

Not taking a moment's hesitation, I grabbed another stone with my vine before throwing it and attempting to roll towards the water. The rock did not hit her hard, but it did its job well, leaving her stunned for a moment longer.

A moment I needed in order to get into the safety of the water, giving me respite. Breathing heavily, listening for any noise behind me and not hearing anything, I turned around.

Fully expected to be greeted with the grin of a Pansear about to launch fire my direction, I instead found myself staring at nothing. My eyes widened and darted around the beach as I tried to lock on to any sort of sign of life.

But she… she was nowhere to be found. Where in the world had she…

Oh no.

A barrage of flames bathed the top of the water, leaving me only to futilely duck as she came down. Flames danced all around me as I tried seeing where she had gone. As the flames cleared, up, only one thing came out of the flames.

One singular face of a Talonflame, painted with the intent to attack. Two outstretched claws, ready to grab. A slightly up-curved beak, enjoying the whole show. And here I was, only having moments to react. I found myself in a rapidly collapsing situation. One that I had to react fast to, or die trying.

Attempting to get out of the way, I felt her claws grip on tight to the end of my charred vine, an appendage I forgotten to retract. Attempting to dislodge the grip she held on it, I started getting dragged me up in the air with her. I was constantly getting swung around, like somebody hanging of the edge of a rope going upwards as I tried to get her to let go.

She smirked down at me, reveling in my discontent.

"Having fun down there…" she said as I futilely tried to attack her with my vine, it doing near nothing due to typing. "Well, I hope you are, because we are about to have so much more fun."

"Let's get started, shall we?"

Without warning, the air around me started blowing past rapidly as she flew straight downwards back towards the water. She went far down enough to the point where the momentum caused me to crash straight through the water, making my entire front side hurt. I got no respite as the water rapidly pushed forward, as I found myself right in the twilight zone between fully submerged and not submerged. The salt water burned into my eyes, creating a giant stinging sensation as I tried to endure.

As my will began to waver, I got forcefully pulled out of the water as I found my form getting forcefully swung. I tried to hold on for as long as I could, but it was getting harder and harder to do so with each passing second.

When she found a target, a local boulder; she swung me at it, keeping a tight grip on my vine at all times. The rock was approaching rapidly, its form growing in size with each passing second, and I had no idea how to avoid it.

But then, I remembered _you_. I remembered how Pansear still could not be far away enough yet. I remembered how much I wanted to see _you_ smile again. I wanted to see _you_ , no matter how hard it would be, I wanted to know _you_ would be okay, whether it was me or him that made sure of that. And that was all that mattered, at the end of the day.

I needed to buy time for him, so that _you_ could be happy again. No matter what it took.

Following an insane train of thoughts, I did the only thing I could do. Facing behind me, I launched a barrage of leaves at my own vine, hoping to sever it, along with the bird carrying it against my will. Moments after contact, I felt an immense wave of pain come over my right side as I went tumbling across the beach.

The world constantly shifted between assorted tans and blues as the momentum left me rolling across the beachside. It hurt, both the pain my eyes felt after getting salted and now full of sand, along with my right side after what I had just done.

But… I was alive. And that was all that mattered right now. I could buy him more time to get away. There was still a chance someone could survive this. A small chance, sure, but an ever growing one.

One that deserved a bit of hope.

Seeing the bird come down at me again from the sky, eyes lusting for blood and its form ready to maim, I knew one thing.

I had to continue drawing this out as long as I could. For both Pansear, and for _you_.

It was with that, that I continued contributing to the madness that was happening on the beachfront, as the sun beat down on it all.

* * *

 _These… these colors…_

 _These blacks, and these whites… this cacophony of color swirling around…_

 _It closes in… it is everywhere I look…_

 _Where… where am I? W-what… even what am I?_

 _And… why… why do the colors hurt so much?_

 _T_ _hey spiral endlessly… into oblivion. They… they never stop…_

* * *

 _Riley's POV_

As I ran towards the van parked in the middle of the chaos, I heard something I had almost forgotten about. Something familiar.

A noise that did not belong in a giant brawl such as this.

Momentarily gesturing Excadrill to cease walking with me, I turned around. There, far away near the door, were the men who were previously looking for me in the house.

Right as they noticed me in the crowd though, the street started to go black. All the lighting previously provided by the streetlamps went dim, and then cut as I heard the crackling of fire. Turning to the side, I saw it spreading rapidly up one of the poles, eventually causing it to fall. Making a divide in the crowd, it left only two sources of light in that cloudy night.

The attacks themselves, and the flames. The bright, consuming flames. The flames, that would soon die down and leave nothing but the black of night.

Barely seeing the faint outlines of Excadrill right next to me, we stuck closely together as I tried to navigate towards the van. Occasionally, a stray attack here or there would land my way, leaving me either to dodge or to take it as we got closer, making me feel pain but not enough to where it made me ever stop. But that was not what concerned me the most.

What concerned me, was the muted sounds of footsteps I heard all around me. Sounds without a source, taunting me from all around at all times. Sounds that scared me out of trying to use my light, out of fear that it would land square on one of their faces.

Sounds that, at the end of the day, would only end when they muffled my face and dragged me into the black abyss all around me.

Sighing, trying to push that comment off of my mind, I continued forward. I needed to focus, or I knew I never had any chance of finding him in this maze of black. If anything, I thought he was gone already.

That was, until I saw something.

A streak of electricity, something that would not usually be notable, if it was not for the face that got lit up momentarily as an result of it. A white face, with two empty eyes. Ones that widened at the sight of me as if I was a far gone memory.

Two eyes I could never forget, no matter what. Two eyes that made me feel a certain regret come back up inside of me.

Two of them, staring at me with so many emotions behind them, until they faded back into the black. Other pokémon had blocked the way, amassing him back into the crowd.

Looking back at Excadrill, we both nodded our heads and continued moving forwards. We were silent as could be, not wanting to make a noise and attract several of the combatants towards me like a group of Venomoth to a Chandelure. But still, I could not see.

I was in the dark, both metaphorically and literally. Just some walking piece of meat, waiting to get swatted down by the first hard-hitting attack thrown my way by a random pokémon trying to hit anyone and anything. To anybody looking in, they would have seen me as insane. But to me, insanity had basically become normal.

And after going through what I had gone through, I was almost certain anyone would say the same. Getting caught up in my own thoughts, and focusing all my attention on anything coming from above or in front of me; I felt something come under my foot. Something slender.

Something that I only could stare at once I saw it start to slither away. A tactic, it might be called by some. One used often by Serperiors, often enough that me and Spark ran into it once.

Often enough, to the point where I found my face almost stuck in one's mouth once. Often enough, that I felt a wave of…

Terror, that was the word. Pure, unfiltered terror.

Irrationality expressed in its purest form, preventing someone from functioning properly in their worst moment. That creeping feeling that everything was already done and gone for.

That was what I felt when I saw two vines jump out at me from the distance, tinged darker and more flaky then I ever remembered Serperior vines being. Every part of me wanted to scream. But if I screamed, I already knew the world would scream back. I would catch every last one of the mob's attention, and then I would start screaming for a very different reason. A reason my mind particularly did not want to dwell on.

No matter what, I could not scream though. That was a certainty.

As I got lifted up by the vines, everything started to turn into a blur. I swear I could see Excadrill trying to do something, but I was not able to see what. Instead, I saw a blurry landscape.

A blurry landscape, and rain. Heavy rain.

Heavy rain, and a car. A car, and a boy.

A boy named Riley. A boy that used to be me. A boy that did not know what to think anymore, having just seen his world get torn apart right in front of him a while ago. Someone who just did not feel like running anymore.

He cried, and continued crying, with only the dirt in front of him to absorb his tears. That was, until he saw a van. One that he saw the a window lowering on, one that exposed the view of something with a green face.

A green face, that could only express a look of pure concern. A green face, with two, long—

"Move out of the way! I won't let you hurt him!"

Suddenly, I snapped out of my trance as I saw two familiar dark eyes rush towards me. They jumped up and slashed at the vines binding me together as I collapsed on the road.

"Hex…" I said, not thinking at the time.

In front of me, I saw a fight break down between Serperior and Hex with Excadrill at his side. Hex's claw got covered in a dark energy, one as dark as the black surrounding everything, as he rushed towards the green snake. Excadrill did the same as he left a gash straight across the beast's right eye. It recoiled in pain, as I tried to get up.

The snake's tight grip it had put on me with its vines had caused the wound to start to hurt much more again. I tried to stand up again, going against my body's wishes, but I managed as the snake finally fell from their repeated attacks I had not witnessed.

Hex rushed towards me, his eyes being as dead as ever, besides the two solitary lights in them. He spoke in hushed tones, not wanting to attract noise.

"I…" he said, while looking down at the ground. "I really thought it just me seeing things when I thought I saw you in the dark. Why are you—"

Excadrill spoke up, interrupting him while speaking the same silent tone. "Can I uh… ask why you are trying to talk to him, whoever you are? You… you do realize he can't hear you, right? All you're achieving is making noise that will attract another one of those things his way, something we do not need right now."

Silence washed over the conversation as Hex looked up at me. His eyes burned like little flames in the darkness, constantly asking one heavily implied question.

' _Does… does he not know yet?'_

Sighing, I silently said, "Well, you see Excadrill, it's… it's more complicated then that." watching his eyes light up as an epiphany hit him dead in the face, I redirected my attention back to Hex. "In any case though, I think I deserve an explanation as to why in the world you are here."

Looking down at the ground, scratching the back of his head nervously, he said, "Well, funny story actually. You see—"

Suddenly, I saw a red light that previously did not exist start to shine over all of us. Thinking it was some fire type or something, I turned around, thinking I was ready to deal with it.

Over the next to moments, two words would be said. One would be listened to, and the other, a causation for the first.

"Stop!" would be the first one, said by men not to be trust, and "Run!" would be the second, screamed by Hex.

We all listened to the second as we ran into the darkness, hearing both the footsteps of pokémon and of men as we approached wherever Hex was leading us, his light acting as a torch.

Life was fundamentally defined by having outliers of insanity, and at least today, that held true.

 _Spark's POV_

Everything started to ache as the world took on a slight hue of orange. To most, it would just be a sign of evening, or of the sun setting on another day.

But to me, it was a sign of massive fatigue. Of fatigue, and regret towards past decisions. To think, just half a year ago, I was walking up here because I was told to do so.

To think that the days after that day became some of the best in my life as I found myself with pokémon that actually liked me. To think, that only a day after the lost of Riley, it would all turn into a giant nightmare as I found myself chasing after that Snivy.

Why did I believe that dream. Why did I not just doubt it and told Dunsparce we would look for them the tradition way. Why was something that seemed so likely also the thing that managed to make today a real nightmare

As I continued to run, going against my screaming muscles wishes for me to stop, I heard buzzing intensify again behind me. Anticipating a lunge coming at me from behind, I ducked before turning around; him having anticipated me turning to the nearby alleyway and lunging that way. Had I decided not to switch it up...

The musty air stirred up in the alley would have been me, now being forced up into the air. As they tried to drag me out, thinking I was _that thing_ , and not someone else entirely.

I still hated _that thing_ , despite it rearing its face sometimes. If there was anything I did not want, it was to be _that thing_ again. _That thing._ The only reason I had not stopped running yet, having long since realized they were either long gone with Emolga from here or were never here in the first place. The reason of not wanting to be _that thing_ again. That... that disgusting, vile _thing._ That _thing_ that stood inside of me, brooding, waiting to get out.

 _That thing._ That sad, sad joke of a thing that no one should ever be, yet I once was. _That thing_ my father always told me to avoid coming, lest I…

My father… I did not even believe what happened had happened, but it had… why?

Being overwhelmed with emotions back from that day, of the reds and the browns slow blending in the street, of a Pichu running away from something. Something that was white, and I had never seen before. Something that… frankly, was terrifying.

But what was more terrifying was that they… they just killed him. That they just killed him in the middle of the town, with him being the only one that stood behind. I watched from a window against his will as he fell and I ran downstairs like the little idiot I was.

The rest was history, as I remembered that Flygon calling out to me from the sky to come with him, and me knowing he was with that monster. He was not any different now, despite that white monster not being with him.

If anything, the fact that he was still searching for me scared me. How obsessive were they? How long had they been looking here for?

My emotions were uncontrollable as most would be in this situation. It had taken three criminals, with an odd picture that seemed less and less relevant as time went on, to bring me into this situation. Three criminals, who now had Dunsparce's best friend as their captive and were nowhere to be found, caused all the hiding and the hardship I felt over the years to be for nothing.

Three bandits. Three simple bandits, that were long gone and more than likely selling her in some back alley in the capital, based off that message they left. That was all it took.

Life… really does spit on someone when they are hurting the most. It… it really does, does it not?

Trying to not tear up, I continued pushing my aching muscles as I fell deeper into the rut of cynicism I found myself stuck in.

To think, they… they were all gone: Riley; Emolga; Spark's old faked but slightly real cheerfulness; Dunsparce actually liking me; Seeing Post Town, after… after today. Everything was… well, gone at least to me, for it to be put lightly.

I had no reason to run, but only pure selfishness. There was Dunsparce, but I already knew I was not going to find Emolga here. That dream was exactly what it was, a dream. Any earlier hope I had already drained out as it dawned on me how today was going to be. The dreams I had been having and trusted not knowing what else to follow were just that, dreams. Hopes that never come to fruition. Hopes that brought me back to the place I never wanted to see again.

Hopes that hurt me so much as I saw the crimson sky in front of me, with all of its scarlet hues dancing across it. Hues that made me hurt. Hues, bold yet gentle, that would only act as constant reminders of the day that my life was ruined. The scarlet red hues of the sun.

The rays beat down as I ran, without hope, and without belief in a better future.

Hearing the buzzing rush at me, I jumped out of the way; wind flying past and the world turning to the side as I landed. Using my momentum, I jumped off and deposited myself back on the street, taking the moment to run into a nearby alleyway before Flygon could recompose himself and block my passage forward.

Hope may had died, but that did not mean I could not make this a struggle. Everything may have collapsed around me already, but that did not mean that I would accept it. I had a long established tendency to do that: hurting something as much as I can before being brought down myself. Dunsparce was just another example, in my long sad book of wrong doings I had accumulated over the years.

An unintentional one, of course, but still one.

Continuing onwards, going through the alleyway, I thought about the days past that horrible one I had here. The ones full of horrible experiences done by shells of pokémon, having long since forgotten about the existence of morality. This world, in general, was a hateful one, and no matter how much someone would fight back, they would always be taken down by the mass. Profit was mandatory, along with pride. Pride, and a tendency to ruin others lives. That was considered the norm, through and through. In thinking about it, the Bittercold was an inevitable result of all of this.

Exiting the alleyway and finding myself back in the light, I start pushing towards the bridge, leading out of town and into the woods. If there was any hope I could get out of here, that was the way.

But still, it was a sad, sad sight to see. Sometimes, I questioned whether the Bittercold was even wrong. Maybe… maybe I killed any chance at anybody in this living a good life, for a long, long time.

I saw that monster come out on top of the roof of one of the buildings as it rapidly attempted to stop me in my tracks by blocking the bridge. I tried to up my pace, but I knew it would get there before I did.

Perhaps I was a much bigger monster than even I admitted. Maybe instead of inspiring hope like I did in the outlier that was Post Town, I only cemented what might have been a future of unrest and greed on everyone's part.

Maybe Kyreum was right. After all, it was not like anything got better for either me or anybody in Post Town following its defeat. If anything, it got worse.

Maybe I ruined everyone's lives. Maybe… maybe the Bittercold was right all along.

Approaching the bridge rapidly, I saw that he had positioned himself right on the entrance to it, preventing me from moving forward. But, much against his expectation, I continued moving closer to it. Being only a few Charizard tails away from the bridge, I jumped, dodging his attempt to catch me and finding myself barreling straight towards the rapid currents. As I moved towards them, I got to see one last view.

The face of a Flygon, that looked too shocked to be not real. Someone, who looked scared out of his mind at what he had just witnessed. A face I questioned how he was still managing to fake all of this, even when he knew he had failed at his one job: capturing me.

As the water came, I thought a last few thoughts. For all I knew, Hydreigon at the end of the day was just playing us to fulfill his own interests. Perhaps he was not as much of a martyr as I once thought. Maybe he was just playing us to fulfill his own interests…

Maybe… maybe he pretended just like me. No one with that much power was that colloquial, at the end of the day.

It was with those thoughts, that I crashed into the water and the world started to fade, that I thought one last hurtful thing.

At the end of the day, were we ever truly much more then pawns? Or had we been played, like so many others in this world over the years. Hydreigon, at the end of the day, tricked all of us. Wherever he was now, I hoped he was happy with what he had done to the world.

For it was ruined, and would stay that way, for—

…

…

…

* * *

 _These… these colors…_

 _They dance around each other, harder and harder as it continues to hurt more…_

 _What… what are they doing? How… how do they hurt so much?_

 _What is going on… what… what am I?_

 _And why… why do I have to constantly be forced to watch this, without being able to say anything?_

 _Is this… is this true torture? W-watching the color get sucked out of people's lives?_

 _Why… why does it hurt so much to watch? Why… why can I see this?_

* * *

 _Snivy's POV_

As the skyline started to turn a crimson red, it became harder and harder to fight as I accumulated wounds.

Breathing heavily due to fatigue, I saw her fly back from the sky, bathing the beach in roaring flames as she descended. Noticing things slower in general, I tried to get out of the way last minute: the tip of my tail getting singed as a result.

I tried to think of anything to counter her. I could run in the water again, but that would fundamentally lead to me either hiding under the waves or using my other remaining vine. The one that had not been chopped in half, so I did not get squashed on the side of a rock. It seemed that no matter what I did, it would only manage to stretch it out further and further, with no escape in sight.

Right as I was about to think further, I heard a grinding noise. A noise that would later present itself as the boulder that I was hiding behind getting sliced in half, as I saw her swoop past me.

Metal wing. An especially powerful version, too. Of course...

Getting out of the way, the boulder landed on the sand, kicking it up in one giant storm. My vision had turned into a giant mess of browns and tans, leaving me vulnerable and making my eyes hurt simultaneously.

So, when I saw a certain monster emerge from the darkness, a black silhouette rapidly approaching, I knew there was nothing I could do but take it and endure.

Both of her claws gripped on as she took me for a ride. A ride, I could not despise more.

She took me slightly up in the air, before starting to slash at me, with every wound hurting more than the last. I could only cringe as each attack hit me, with no hope of escape in sight. I could try launching another barrage of leaves at her, but it had a tendency to not hit work well at close range. And my vine…

No, that was not happening. Not after that. I could not bring myself to try it again, after how horribly using my vines went last time.

I would only use it as a last resort, and that was for sure. No matter what.

Continuing to get lacerated by her repeated slashes, she eventually launched me from her grip as I went tumbling on the beach. The world shifted from blues to tans to blues again as I got forcefully tossed into the sand, rolling around from the momentum.

Everything… hurt so much, that I could not even… even move…

To think… had Pansear not been there, maybe I might had been able to see you again one day… To… to think…

It hurts to think about… but it's not like it hurts worse then me right now…

Why…

Hurting all over, I eventually managed to slowly pushed myself up from the sandy beach side, the imposing form of the bird being standing there, waiting for me. She was enjoying watching me suffer, and it was more then obvious. It had been obvious from the beginning who the victor of this fight was going to be, but I did not expect it to be this brutal or this amusing to her.

I... I never expected this… after running for so long, I did not think the world would spit on me this hard… When we put down that fake threat that threatened to enslave that Lillipup, it was more meant to scare them into giving it back more than anything… I-I never…

I never thought my story would end like this, lost and alone in a world I do not belong in…

I…

Unexpectedly, Talonflame's form was coated in a white bath of light as she turned back into a Zoroark. Her face held an expression as the light dispersed, one only held by pokémon feeling one thing.

Ones that felt like it was time to finish something, once and for all. One I did not like.

One she kept as she started walking forward, fear trickling inside of my face as my expression shifted and weaned in sync with the fear that was bellowing up inside of me.

Suddenly, she began to dash towards me, leaving me only to try to disorient her with my last remaining vine. Unfortunately, It did not do its job.

Instead, I felt a giant piercing pain to my left side, leaving me in agony as I saw my last vine fly off, a trail of green liquid being left in its wake. Trying and failing to rapidly backpedal in shock over the whole ordeal as she approached, I got grabbed by the neck as tightly as she possibly could.

"No more games, little runt." she said, not letting up her grip on my throat, holding it higher and higher in the air, " It all ends, here and now, like it should have such a long time ago."

"This is going to be so, so fun."

I tried to breath in, but all that came was muffled gasps. As hard as… as I would try to break from her gasp, all… I achieved was it getting tighter and her a second hand around it. To… to be honest, it… it was kinda a… a miracle she didn't try to… to… snap my neck…

Maybe… maybe she was enjoying it? Did she… she enjoy watching Tyrunt die too? Were… were all of these… these last few days… one funny joke to her?

Breath slowly escaped me as my lungs continued screaming for air. The leaf on my tail allowed some air in, elongating the process, but after it being singed it would not act as a replacement. At best, I had a minute.

A minute that felt like it would never end. A minute that could only remind me of a promise I made long ago. Eventually, small, white dots started to cover my vision. White dots that started to rip me away from reality as it started to fade. White dots that reminded me nothing was truly pure.

Gasping in a futile attempt to get air, I thought a few last words. A few words, that would only stay in my brain, forever.

In the end, I-I failed you… I-I am so sorry…

I am… I am so sorry… Y-you were everything to me…

The white dots increased and intensified, consuming my vision and leaving me to only see small wisps of the world. Her grip intensified as my last few thoughts came to mind.

Do… do not ever forget that…

Please, do not ever forget…

Alexia, please…

It was with that, along with the last rays of sunlight that I would ever feel beaming down from the crimson sun, that everything went a stark, humbling white.

The day, was finally done.

…

…

…

 _Riley's POV_

The night never seemed to end as a slight rain started to pour down from the clouds blocking off the moon.

Footsteps and brutality, the two noises that characterized that night, rang out through the entire area as both Excadrill and I quickly followed Hex to his destination. I gripped my bag harder then ever, not wanting anything to come out. After about a minute of non-stop going, we stopped near a certain van. A black van, the same one that seemed so close back when the area had not turned a near pitch black that it was now.

Breathing heavily, resting my hand against the van, I said, "Hex, please, we need to keep going. They'll be here any minute now, we can not afford to rest here."

The rain came down heavy as Hex finally spoke up. "You… you asked before why I came here, didn't you?" I nodded quietly, "Well, that's why... there is a certain thing in there, a certain thing that. Look, we just need to get it out, and then we can go!"

I was about to disregard his request entirely, but then it dawned on me. What could they have that would be so important?

These were probably the same men that raided Alexia's house, if I had to guess, so… I had to give him a chance. If anything, this could lead me back to her.

Having a change of mind, I turned to face my old starter. "Excadrill, please, break open the door, and then we'll be off."

He was hesitate at first, not wanting to stick around, but he eventually walked forward. His claws charged up, and were ready to slash the lock of the door open, allowing for easy access, before—

Before a large torrent of water smashed into his form, causing him to tumble across the battlefield as a Samurott came out of the darkness. Seeing Hex running over to deal with it, I rushed over to Excadrill's side, seeing if there was anything I could do to help.

"Hey, please say something?" I asked as his form went unmoving. "Please, answer me! Please!"

The night had been long, and I did not want it to become longer. Yet it was starting to seem that way, until I saw him stir.

"You… even if this is the first time I've been able to speak to you, I would hope you would expect more of me."

A small, relieved grin formed on my face as I helped him up. We both quickly moved through the black haze that was the entire area, until we reached near the back of the van. The situation was rapidly deteriorating, with Hex not doing well and a Emboar having joined the fight.

They had to be brainwashed, or at least, indoctrinated near fully into their master's cause. The sight of them only managed to do one thing: make me feel sick inside. Those poor, poor souls. It made me want to vomit, how cruel all of this was.

But, at the time, I just had to gulp it down as I tried to help Hex.

"Excadrill, use dig, and then slash from behind. Take some heat off of Hex, so that he can focus on who he is fighting!"

He followed my instruction, quickly burrowing underneath the cement, leaving a mess for someone else to clean up later. Meanwhile, as I found myself right up against the door, seeing no one around me. I started to dart my eyes around to find Hex, when I saw…

A Samurott, rapidly charging my way, with its horn ready to attempt to impale me. Its eyes, and astute cyan, ready to try to dictate my fate. A cyan, Samurott never had.

A cyan, that… that did not look new.

It was another thing I chalked up at the time, promising to think about it later as I rushed out of the way of the charging starter. Its horn found a place straight through the door's lock, breaking it but causing their horn to be stuck in it, anchoring it to the door.

Taking my attention off of the, I saw both Excadrill and Hex approach me from the darkness, their forms clouded by the darkness until they became clear. We all nodded, the fate of the fire type being more than clear, as we focused our attention on the now almost free Samurott behind me.

Excadrill rushed at it from behind, with his claws glowing a gray like steel. He slashed at the thing's head as I cringed in pain. Seeing me again, it attempted to charge, only to be stopped when Hex slashed both of Samurott's front legs with a claw coated in shadow itself.

The attacks hit hard, causing it to fall down. In most cases, this would had been the end of the fight, with the creature having fainted. But, unlike most, it came back up and kept going, lacerated in injuries from both Excadrill and Hex. Just how indoctrinated were these things! He had said a single word throughout the entire battle, so I… I…

I could only guess that he would not stop until he went down, permanently. As sickening as this felt it would be to do, I knew it had to happen.

This was messed up, in its entirety. I guessed we had to put it out of its misery, no matter how brutal it would end up being. I just hoped I would forgive myself for this later, because this was not going to be pretty.

As the rain continued to pelt down, and the Samurott looking like it should not even be able to stand anymore, still resisting, I told them to go.

The fighting was brutal, with the water starting to look a bit redder every second as it mixed into the rainwater settling on the street. It was hard to see, but the creature was not going to be able to stand forever with the amount of hits it was taking. Nothing could, nothing normal at least.

But today was anything from normal, and the fighting continue on longer than I ever expected. Long enough, to the point where I got distracted. Long enough, to where I heard the footsteps start to make their presence again.

One, that took its own form when I felt a blunt object hit me in the back of my head. I stumbled backwards, rapidly losing consciousness, but not before seeing one face.

The face of Linden. Far in the background, behind the person who had just hit me. His face, painted with a horrified expression at me. My face, now being painted with betrayal.

He had caused all of this. He betrayed me.

That monster… I-I trusted you, Linden.

I-I really did…

Very quickly, my head reached the water and broken concrete as the world grew dim. It… all started to go blurry, besides one thing.

The picture. The picture, getting launched out of my bag, landing in Hex's hands. Him holding his hand out, and screaming one last sentence before consciousness departed from me.

"Riley! No! Please!"

But it was too late as my consciousness faded rapidly, with the rain and the ground greeting me one last time, like it did so very long ago. Seeing him run into the van with two men after him, the world turned fully black for me.

My running, was done.

…

…

…

The rain came heavy as I tried to get as far away from those bad men as I could.

Those men… why was my mom so afraid of those men… why did she…

Shaking my head, I reminded myself of what she told me to do. To run as far away as possible. To run as far as I needed to. To run, to run, and to run.

And more importantly then all, to never give up. To keep going, even without an end in sight.

But the world felt so cold and wrong, as I tried to keep running with this rain. It felt so wrong, running away from her as she… she…

Why… why did this happen… why…?

Not finding any will to keep going, I eventually stopped on the side of the road as I stared at the mud in front of me. I knew I needed to keep running, but it was starting to hurt to run as my mind could not drop the image of the van.

Why…?

Tears started to leak out of my eyes, acting like clouds dropping rain.

Why… why, why, why…

I fell on my knees, soaking my pants in mud. I started to hit it with my fists, wondering one thing.

Why? Why had this happened? What… what had went wrong?

Why did she… why…?

I sobbed, with only the dirt to greet my face. I sobbed, until I felt a yellow light come over me and a window open. One that I looked up towards.

One that I saw a Snivy at, along with a little girl. A little girl named Alexia, who was actively pointing at me as the car doors opened.

They rushed at me, asking questions I did not know how to even begin to answer. Helping me up, they brought me into their car. I did not like cars anymore, at least after today.

But… it would suffice. As it started up, and went off along the road. I told them my name was Riley as they headed of to Driftveil, where I would be until five days prior.

I sat their silently, as I thought about my mother's last words. How she told me to never say what she referred to me as, to keep my past discrete.

The car went off towards, with the fake name Riley I had made up becoming as real as my hatred towards those men.

It still hurt to think about. It hurt so, so much.

And the pain would never stop, even after I forgot.

* * *

 _I am… I am all alone here, am I not?_

 _Stuck, trapped. Watching everything collapse. Being forced to witness all of this._

 _Stuck wondering what I even used to be, as I search my mind for answers._

 _There… there is no color to this world, only blacks, and whites._

 _Only a dichotomy, in a world full of so many values. A world, forcefully simplified by its own people…_

 _And… and it hurts to watch…_

 _There truly is nothing left to be saved, is there?_

* * *

 _?'s POV_

…

…

…

The sun shined brightly as the wind blew past, causing the leaves of trees to sway. It was another day.

Another miserable, stupid day.

My eyes slowly blinked open, from another night of near to no rest. Rubbing my eyes in an attempt to get myself to actually move for once, I got up and stumbled towards my bag.

To most, it was not a great start to the day, but… I had not had a good start to a day for a while. If anything, not waking up in either cold sweat or tears was great, knowing my recent dreams.

Taking a second to make sure the campfire from last night was not still going, and quickly packing up anything else I had brought out for the night, I went back on the trail. I walked, keeping an eye on the map I had been given by master Quagsire to follow at all times. To think, I was going to be forming a small little guild of my own up here, in this city that the world seemed to forgot existed.

I had already come up with the name, too. I was going to call it Paradise.

Paradise, a place where everybody was who they were, and nothing less. Paradise, a place where unlike the rest of the world, morality could exist.

Paradise.

It was extremely cheesy, and I already knew it, but it was going to be the name of my guild. Nothing was going to change that.

It would be my name to my guild. My dream.

Well, hopefully, anyways. For all I knew, the place would turn out to be unsafe, and we would not be able to establish ourselves here. It depended all on whether Quagsire was not wrong when he sent a letter stating nobody unscrupulous was around.

But, at the time, that did not matter much to me. Looking up at the sky, a slight smile managed to form on my face as the famed mountains of the north came into view. They were present all throughout the northern peninsula, and danced their way throughout it, creating nooks and crannies everywhere.

To most, it was a land without much hope preceding a glacial nightmare of an area further north. But to me, it represented actual hope.

I knew I could make something here. Something special. Somewhere, where everything could be how it should be.

But, just as my thoughts were reaching somewhere, my mind's attention got captured by a enigma in the sky. One that made me stop and question whether what I was seeing was real.

A a giant white hole, with something emerging from it.

Something gray. Something with two white tusks.

A thing, often called an Axew. One falling from the sky, at high speeds.

One that would hit the ground very soon. One that my strapped breath made me start rushing towards where he would end up.

Gripping my bag harder, and suspending my disbelief, I started running towards the area underneath the hole in the woods. He continued to fall, spiraling downwards and downwards, screaming loudly in obvious distress as I tried to get there as fast as possible. Using his screaming as a motivator, I pushed myself to run forward as hard as I could as his speed increasingly became more and more intense.

I had absolutely no idea what was occurring, but I was not one to question things until after they happened. Running into a small circular opening, I saw his body fall as it came to the ground. It was more then clear I had been too late as I stopped and closed my eyes, not wanting to witness what was about to occur.

My ears waited for any sign of a noise, of a body hitting the ground, but none came. I slowly opened my eyes, seeing the resting body of an Axew on the ground, perfectly intact.

That… that could not be pos-

" _H-hello? Are… are you there?"_

Suddenly, I saw him get up, albeit slowly. His first sight with his piercing red eyes was me, to which he said, "Why… why can I see a Pikachu at eye level? Why…"

His face eventually started to turn downwards, to which he was greeted by his two, gray hands. His eyes widened as he went into… what had to be some kind of identity crisis?

What… what was his problem? He had just fallen from the sky, and he was more concerned about how his hands looked then anything else? What in the world had happened to this guy?

Not being able to quite figure out what was going on, I rushed up to him and asked, "Uh, hey… you kinda just fell out of the sky and all, do… do you need assistance?"

I had absolutely no idea how he would respond, nor could I had guessed his reaction. His eyes lit up as he backed away, him covering his face with his hands, hiding muffled words. I heard him repeatedly mutter the word, "No," as I tried to approach him, inciting some concern as to what in the world this Axew had gone through within me.

" _W-why won't you—"_

Once I reached him, I asked while scratching the back of my head, "Okay, okay, sorry, I was asking too many questions at once. Please, though, if something is an issue, I'd love to help..."

"W-why… why am I not… why am I not a h-human anymore," he said, as the words meaning dawned on me.

Human. An Axew, claiming he was a human. A giant portal in the sky, depositing an Axew claiming he was not a Axew, but a human.

A mythical creature. Something only heart about in legends. Something that was rumored to not even have ever existed, sitting right in front of me.

Taking a more cautious expression, I said, "Dude… please, I'm not going to hurt you. But, you have to tell me, why did you just fall from the sky?"

His response was quick as he looked up at me from his position on the ground.

" _Why… why—"_

" _W-why won't you wake up—"_

"W-why can I hear what you can say? W-where am I, and why am I an Axew?" he said as he got up, dusting the dirt off of himself and still looking like he was on the edge of a panic attack.

Not knowing how else to respond, I decided to feign ignorance. "Look, I'm not exactly sure what a human is, but this is the northern peninsula, if your lost like and don't know where you are like you seem to be. "

His head dipped downwards towards the ground as he said, "Fine then, I'll… I'll tell you. I used to be this thing called a human, as you probably are already aware of after my outburst. And now, I have found myself in the middle of nowhere, stuck in this… form, as a Axew." he hesitated for a moment, looking up at the local mountains, "For Arceus' sake, those look nothing like the Twist Mountains back home, nor does anything here seem to fit… I can't be anywhere near Driftveil, nor even Unova, probably…"

"Unova? Driftveil?" I said as I walked towards him, his attention being sapped from the trees back towards me. "What in the world are you referring to? I've never heard of a place called Unova in my entire life… nor Driftveil…"

" _You… you aren't moving. Why aren't you… you moving…"_

" _P-please, Spark, wake up. D-don't leave me like Emolga… Please…"_

His entire posture locked up as the word sunk in. He held his head in his hands again, muttering more words.

"Why… why did this have to happen… why…" he said as I slowly approached, "why…"

I was starting to grow concerned for his mental state. This was more then obviously the real deal, after seeing his reactions. If anything, he needed something to hold onto in the unknown right now if he really was from nowhere near here, something to…

An idea dawned on me, an idea a bit too manipulative for my liking, but one that would work in fixing this.

Slowly walking to him, I asked, "Well… look, there's a town up ahead, I can bring you up there, if you want?"

He slowly turned around, his face completely downtrodden and devoid of hope, before saying, "I… I guess…"

I took his hand, and we started to walk forwards, towards Post Town.

" _I… I never hated you. I know the way I acted made it seem that way, and would hate myself if I made you believed that… but I never hated you…"_

To think, I never thought it would end as the memory faded into a cold, stark white.

" _But please, p-please, don't go… don't leave me…"_

" _P-please…"_

To think, I was that naive, to believe anything good would ever stay.

…

…

…

"P-please, wake up! Spark, please, wake up!"

My eyes slowly blinked open as I finally woke up, this time, in cold sweat.

The world was a cacophony of scattered colors as my mind came to grips with the surroundings. All around me, there was a giant blur of greens and browns, along with a yellow face, staring down. A yellow face, one that I knew only belonged to only one pokémon: Dunsparce.

He realized I had woken up, and went silent as he slowly crawled off of my face. His eyes looked up at me as I got up wondering how in the world I was still alive after that.

I... what had happened? Seriously, how I was here after that?

Looking towards Dunsparce for any explanation, his face scrunched up. I did not even have to start mouthing any words, before I heard him begin to speak in his shy, barely audible tone.

"W-well… you're probably wondering why your here, aren't you?"

Not being sure of anything that had happened over the last few minutes, I put on my Spark-esque voice and said, "Well… yeah, of- of course!"

My eyes widened as I tried to say something more normally, fearful Dunsparce had caught onto that little slip up.

"Uh…" I said, scratching the back of my head with my hand, "well uh… what did happen?"

His facial expression slight shifted, but I disregarded it, not seeing it as something that important right now. Caring about my perception right now would be like a slap to the face for Dunsparce, who had just watched me run away from him.

If anything, this was not when I was about to become celebratory and say insulting stuff like, 'Yeah! We got out! Woohoo!' No, that was not going to happen. And besides, it was not like Spark really could be a thing anymore, to be honest. Spark had absolutely no reason to run away like I had, no matter how I tried to reason it out and make some weird justification I knew I should not. At the end of the day, Spark had not gone through tragedy, and could not keep up a straight face while making the rational decisions necessary for this.

In everybody's eyes, Spark came up here to spread joy and happiness. He did not know Quagsire before, nor had any association with a guild before then. To them, Spark was a happy, little Pikachu.

But that persona, or any persona I put on, would not cut it anymore. I needed to tell Dunsparce the truth. He deserved to know, after what happened today.

There was no more hiding anything, after today. They now knew I was still around, and would not stop until they found me. Dunsparce deserved to know what had happened to me, and if he really wanted, be given a choice to leave this wreck of a situation I found myself in. As much as it hurt me to throw away my chance at not being alone, he deserved the option. No one deserved to be forced to go through what I had gone through, and I would stand by that fact.

So, after he told me about how he had saved me through using dig to launch me out, dislodging ground to create momentum, I knew what I needed to say. I wanted to tell him about what I really was, like he should had known such a long time ago. Quickly looking forward to check if the path ahead was the right one, I walked towards the tree Dunsparce had laid both my and his travel bag bare against. Grabbing it, I faced back towards him, before saying a simple sentence.

"Look, I'm—"

Suddenly, I heard him speak up, saying, "L-look, I'm… I'm sorry over how I've… how I've been over the last few days, but… why did you run away? Is… is there something I don't… that you've not told me?"

Sighing, slinging the bag over my shoulder, I said, "You… you aren't entirely wrong. But, can we go up the hill to talk about this? I just… Please, can we!"

His mouth went silent as I found myself cringing at my own words. It must had came off as blunt, the exact opposite effect I wanted. Just great.

I was being a socialite as usual, and I loved it. Gotta love scaring my own friends, right?

Gripping my bag more tightly in anger, I started walking forward as he slowly followed from behind. The decision had been made, one that he obviously did not entirely agree with, but he would soon come to understand.

The trees became a blur as we walked up the hills of the forest, eventually reaching our destination. A small cliff-face that faced the sunset, hues of orange getting deposited on it by the rays of sunlight coming down from the closing day. The sun was half way along its descent, acting as a beautiful sight for many watching the day come to a close.

Something I doubted many did anymore, knowing the sick state this world was in. Something I doubted so, so much, after realizing what I realized earlier about what Hydreigon was really doing. To think, the world would be stuck like this, when the suffering could have ended. To think, back when I was a little Pichu, used to come up here all the time, oblivious to all the bad things happening all around us. Even back then, during the happy, peaceful times. Those times felt so far away nowadays: artifacts of a bygone era, lost in the wind, and long beyond repair. Long gone days of innocence, ones that could never be taken back.

Long gone days, that nobody else would had needed to gone through, had I not helped Hydreigon. Had I convinced Riley that he did not have the best interests of us in mind.

Thoughts, like bubbles, came to the surface of my mind, saying things like 'I never had a right to choose for the world's sake,' or, 'Hydreigon just was not around, why am I doubting him so much?'

And to be fair, they had a point. Maybe I was just overreacting. Maybe… maybe he was fine, and I was just letting anger from earlier today get to me, anger originating from them. And he did risk Riley to help save me, so…

But still, why. Why does something feel off about all of this, why does—

Suddenly, I heard rapid footsteps, breaking my chain of thoughts about whether I was overreacting towards all of this. I turned around to see Dunsparce coming close quickly, either getting angry at himself for his lack of speed or something else entirely.

As Dunsparce caught up to me, with his bag causing him to be slower than usual, his attention was immediately caught by the sunset.

"W-wow." I heard him say, staring at the sunset. "This view… it looks just like…"

His voice stuttered out of audibility, as I started walking towards a nearby tree. I threw my bag against a tree, leaving it to rest, as I pushed Hydreigon off of the front of my mind. Taking a moment to walk back over to him, I sat down next to him and said, "It's… it's just like the one in Paradise. You know, the one we looked at on the side of the road."

He looked up at me as I sat down with him looking at the sunset, trying to get the strain the day had on me off of my head before saying… the thing.

Not wanting to break the news yet, I continued talking. "You… you know, I used to come up here as a kid, back when I was a little Pichu. I would just watch the sunset, and take it all in until it finally set. It's beautiful, isn't it?"

He looked up at me, and said, "I… I didn't know you… that you lived here, but yes, it is…" he said, as he refocused his attention from the sun back over to me, "but, you… you never answered my question. Spark, w-why did you… you run from that Flygon earlier?"

Taking one moment to think it over, I started letting the words come out of my mouth. I talked for a while as the sun's hues beat down on the world. I talked about how my name was never Spark, nor why I was anything like him. I talked about how Quagsire was not just some outsider, but my master, and how the Paradise was not completely my doing. I talked about my childhood, and I talked about what I went through in Scarlet City. I even talked about how I lied to him on the way here, and the dream I had of him…

I especially did not want to talk about that one, and seeing his reaction made me hurt even more inside then I had previously, but the damage had been done. It was still hard to take in, even now, how much damage I had done to him over the last few days. But everything needed to come out. Every single last thing.

Otherwise, it would claw against me. Otherwise, it would not stop hurting.

We talked about it all, and he never had much to say back. He took it in, his face only showing a sign of acknowledgement when the occasional emotion leaked through, causing him to cringe or his eyes to fall. It was a long talk, and by the end of it, I could only imagine the confusion going through his mind. We both found ourselves only able to stare at each other. It was as if a unspoken rule was broken, saying everything as I had.

But then, it dawned on me what I needed to say next. No matter how much I did not want to, I had to. I had to get him out of here, before he got caught up in my own mess I had gotten myself stuck into.

"Now, I want you to listen to me, and to take my words to heart. Please, go back to Post Town," I told him, as we both stared out onto the last wisps of sunset burning themselves out. "Don't worry about me, or what I'll be doing from this point on, and just get out of this before you are stuck in it. You have a future out there, and I don't…"

Seeing the words not making a dent in him, him nodding his head in refusal, I tried harder. "Please, trust me, and… and go home. I'll… I'll see if I can find Emolga, but… I can't make any promises like I did all that time ago… but please, trust me." eventually tears, real in nature, started to fall from my eyes as I saw him not listen to my words.

Why was he… why will he not… I do not want to see him like me…

He spoke up towards me as I broke down on the cliff-side. "D-do you… do you really think I'm just going to abandon you? D-dude… please, stop crying…" he said, approaching closer with his eyes looking straight towards me, "I'm… I'm not just going to—"

"Please, just go!" I screamed his way, causing him to back up. "I-I don't want to see you become like me! Please… go home… please, be free…"

"Don't get involved in this… please, just listen to me this one time… I don't want to see you hurt, too…"

The sun beckoned down on all, and I took out my rage on the ground. I knew I looked like a kid at the moment, but I did not care. All I cared about was not losing another friend of mine, like I had with Riley and Emolga. Both of them were long gone, and I did not want to lose someone else. Even if that meant I would never see them again, I did not care.

So when he refused, and I stared out onto the endless abyss of scarlet reds through tears, I heard him say one sentence.

"Besides… w-we… we can go regroup in the Paradise, and… and figure it out from there, right?"

That was when something else dawned on me. Something much more terrifying then just myself being lost in this conflict. There was every chance they would start looking up north for other stowaways or me, and that would lead them...

That would lead them straight to Post Town. All they needed to do was follow the tan brick road Dunsparce and I had taken, and they would be lead straight there. And everybody there would be seen as… as enemies…

Oh no. Oh, no, no, no.

We would not even be able to make it in time to warn them, if they were coming. We would just get intercepted and die if we followed the road. And if we did not, there would be absolutely no chance we would reach them in time. Post Town was not going to be around for much longer, and that was near certain.

How was I going to be able to tell him this? That his home was about to be sacked because of some Pikachu who wanted to further an organization's goals?

How would I tell him that Post Town was about to become another Scarlet City, and there was no way we could warn them in time?

Trying to wipe off some tears, I looked back up at Dunsparce, and said, "Dunsparce… I'm… I'm not sure Post Town is going to be the same place as the one you knew if we try to get back…"

He went dead silent as apprehension filled his two, peering eyes. Standing up off of the ground, I wiped off my tears and tried to not let any further ones fall. I said one last thing.

"I'm… I'm sorry Dunsparce… I really am, but... but there is nothing we can do. If you want to stay with me and not run off, then all we can do is wait and hide. We, collectively, may have defeated the Bittercold, but… it didn't free anybody. We're all trapped, in this sick, twisted joke of a world that has existed for so long. And we're not getting out like Riley did, unfortunately. Hydreigon… he lied to us. Nothing can be saved in this world…"

It was on that day, that Team Unity died. Dunsparce broke down, leaving me to try to comfort him as we watched the final wisps of day falter out of existence.

"There, there…" I said, trying to stay somewhat strong. "I'll… I'll always be beside you."

"I'll never abandon you, no matter what. I can promise you that."

And with that, the night fell as the last few embers of hope I had died as well.

This was just the beginning. And I hoped it would not an ending as well. This was just a sad, sad beginning of something sickening. The moon watched over all as we all fell into what had to be the deepest rut we encountered yet, if Riley going away or losing Emolga was not bad enough.

And it would only get worse, as time went on, without a care or worry in the world.

It would only get much, much worse.

* * *

…

…

…

 _The world, it… it never moves without change._

 _When all action is nullified, a society becomes stagnant. Intolerant to change. And when the status quo triumphs over change, a dystopia is formed. A place, were nothing in society moves. It is infinitely at a stand still, never going anywhere._

 _So why… why does the world change so much, yet never go anywhere at the end of the day?_

 _And why… why does it hurt so, so, much to continue to watch?_

 _Why… why will it not end? Why… why can it not stop?_

 _I... I do not want to see this anymore…_

 _Please… make it stop…_

 _Please… whoever is out there, make it stop_ _…_

 _I hate watching this. So, so much_ _…_

* * *

 _?'s POV_

…

…

…

When the world came into view all around me, with its towering trees and all, I almost could not believe it.

Taking a look around, I pushed myself up off of the ground. No matter what direction I looked in, I could not stop staring in disbelief at the surroundings. I truly was back in this world ripped away from me. Getting up off of the soggy ground, I looked back over myself, quickly making sure nothing had changed after what had happened. I was still composed off bone and marrow, like I had been ever since that day so long ago. And I was thankful, that at least this one time, it had not changed.

Now, I just needed to figure out where Pansear and Tyrunt were, after all these years. Sighing at the fact that I did not remember wherever this area was, I started to walk in a random direction, hoping to run into a road or town.

I walked for a while, at least, until I saw a certain ruffling in the bushes. Not wanting to be jumped by some feral, I walked up to the source of the disturbance, ready to attack at any moment as I pushed back the bushes. But, then, I heard speaking, causing me to freeze up.

They were raspy muffled calls for help. Raspy calls for help, originating from a non-feral.

Very quickly realizing what had happened, I pushed back the bushes, worried how hurt they were, only to find—

Oh… Oh no…

I pushed back the bushes, to find a Emolga, both broken, and cold.


End file.
